Rats Wars
by NatzandtheRatz
Summary: AU. The new Supreme Chancellor for the New Galactic Senate is a Sith, and he wants to destroy the Jedi and Bounty Hunters. So how do Boba Fett and Dengar get mixed up in it? Chapter 16: A fitful night's sleep on darkened Coruscant
1. Prologue

-1Disclaimer- Never mind what goes on in my rather disillusioned mind, Boba Fett, Dengar, Manaroo, and any other characters/planets/species or anything else Star Wars related are not my property, they are Lucas' all the way. But I had fun making up my own new Rats Wars characters/planets/species and everything else, which aren't Lucas'.

It might help to read the humorous companion piece to this story, Rats Wars Diaries, to understand what's going on here. Or maybe you should read this one first, and then Rats Wars Diaries. It works either way.

**Prologue**

Two year has passed since the fall of the Empire. The galaxy has been in turmoil. After the initial euphoria of defeating the Empire, the Rebel Alliance realised they didn't really know how to run the galaxy, and conflict was always near, due to the many Imperial factions still at large in the galaxy. Luke Skywalker and his friends retired to a distant planet to train Jedi, leaving rebuilding the galaxy to the newly reformed Galactic Senate.

Now, after two long years, the new Supreme Chancellor of the Republic, with the help of Skywalker's newly trained Jedi, has managed to restore peace to the galaxy. On Coruscant, the Supreme Chancellor prepares to speak to the Galactic Senate on an issue that has dogged the fledgling Republic for the past two years. Bounty hunters.


	2. In Motion

Coruscant

The Quermian stood a little way from the doorway opening. His large head was perfectly still, balanced on his thin neck, an attribute that helped to calm those around him. One of the subconscious reasons that this Quermian was the Supreme Chancellor of the New Galactic Republic. Chayni Tular had been voted in unanimously the previous year, and had struggled constantly to restore order to the galaxy, with the help of the new Jedi Knights. Now he was due to speak to the senate about a constant thorn in his side; bounty hunters.

Then, something occurred that would puzzle anyone else apart from Tular. A bounty hunter entered the anti-chamber and approached him. Her name was Ellay Ko'alo, a bird like being from the planet of Quannar. Tular did not turn to her, but said "Have you sent the message?"

"Yes. An anonymous message, concerning the bounty on babies Suli and Zaen has been sent to every bounty hunter in the galaxy."

"Except to…?"

"Except to Boba Fett."

"Good. It is in motion."

Silence fell between them. Ko'alo ran a green hand through her red feathery hair.

"What else can I do? Do you want me to accompany you to Trangor Prime?"

"No. I must work alone there." The Quermian turned around. "I have to speak to the senate now. Leave, and make sure no-one sees you."

Before he could blink the bounty hunter was gone, silent and swift. She was useful, and Tular knew she would be much more useful in the future. He rolled his head on his neck, and breathed. Now, for step two of the plan. He stepped out through the doorway onto the flying platform, and descended through the ranks of senators to the platform in the middle of the enormous hall, where a few familiar figures awaited him.

Tular began to speak.

"Senators of the Galactic Republic, I have called this meeting to discuss with you all the bounty hunter threat that overshadows all that we have worked towards during these past two years. Continually, these freelance murderers, for that is what they are, have helped our foes still allied to the Empire, and have tried to foil our attempts to better the mistakes we, the Senate, made in the past. Now, I have learned from an anonymous source, that the bounty hunters have an alliance, and are making their way to the planet of Trangor Prime to make war on its inhabitants. I ask you, Senators, whether you agree with my view, that the Jedi," he indicated the figures surrounding him on the central platform, "lead by Jedi Master Skywalker," he smiled at the robed figure standing next to him, "should go to Trangor Prime and thwart these bounty hunters and their evil intentions."

Almost every senator stood up and cheered so loudly that Tular could not go on. Almost every senator.

Far back in the rows of senators, sitting in the hovering platform for Senators from the Corellian system, one person did not cheer. Sub-senator Fornia Alorida stood at the back of the Corellian senator's platform, worriedly observing the wild cheers of the figures around her. Something wasn't right.

Fornia, unlike most senators, knew how mercenaries and bounty hunters thought and behaved. She had grown up amongst the gangsters and low-lives of Corellia (her father was one), and had never known of bounty hunters grouping together for any reason. She doubted that an allegiance of bounty hunters would attack the residents of a planet that was just beyond the Core Worlds.

Still, Chayni Tular wasn't the Supreme Chancellor of the New Galactic Senate for nothing. He was the most incorrupt leading politician the senate had ever known, and Fornia trusted his information, even though she did not completely understand why bounty hunters would be attacking Trangor Prime.

Fornia glanced up. The senator from Iridonia was calling for a vote on sending the Jedi to Trangor Prime. She'd better send a hologram to her stupid half-brother, to make sure he wouldn't be one of the bounty hunters going to Trangor Prime. Even though Fornia knew he'd been trying to get out of the mercenary business, if the bounty hunters were really joining together to make war, Fornia would bet anything that old debts would be called in during the process, and Force only knew how many old debts Dengar had.

The vote went unanimously, as did all votes under Tular. The Jedi would be going to Trangor Prime to combat the bounty hunters. Fornia made a mental note to send a hologram to Manaroo, and warn Dengar to stay away.

Space- same time, different place

A ship hung in the vacuum, noiseless, emitting the cold and calculating aura of a machine used for destruction.

Its appearance was charred, battered; a relic of the Kuat Drive Yards. But appearances, as is usually the case, can be deceptive.

A human (one assumed; no-one ever saw his face) sat at the controls of the ship. To the untrained eye, he might have been sleeping, but to the more criminally-aware members of the galaxy, it was common knowledge Boba Fett would do nothing so careless. He sat, motionless, expectantly watching the holo-projector, and waited. Soon a light flashed on the device, and he leaned forwards and tapped a button on the machine. Instantly a blue figure flashed up on top of the projector.

"Hey, Fett." said the figure jovially

"Dengar." said Fett in a disinterested and short tone. "You have information?"

"You bet! I can't believe it, I was just sitting here and the holo-projector starts beeping, and I was like 'who?'. So I answered it and it's all about those kids, Suli and Zaen?"

"I have heard of them. Their current price is 10,000. Hardly something to send a hologram to me about."

"Actually, their 'current price' is 1000, 000 credits. Each."

Fett leaned forwards, taken aback for a second. "Where did you acquire this information?"

"Uh, well," mumbled Dengar, "it was an anonymous message."

Fett would've rolled his eyes if he ever allowed himself to become exasperated. "I don't trust it. Most likely a ruse, Dengar."

"Why would someone bother to ruse me? Anyway, I checked with a couple of people just to make sure. That's the price."

Fett paused momentarily. _One million credits each. One million._ It was definitely worth investigating, if only to keep Dengar from harm. He was his bounty hunting partner, after all.

"Did it tell you where the merchandise can be found?"

"Uh huh. Trangor Prime. A dump usually, but it's looking a lot nicer now, wouldn't you agree?"

Fett ignored him. Friendly banter did not interest him, and besides, he had an uneasy feeling about this particular bounty. _He_ was usually the one to find information and inform Dengar, not the other way round. And it all seemed a little too easy for Fett's liking. An anonymous message, promising a huge prize and even telling where it could be found. It seemed more than likely that things were not as simple as Dengar claimed, and Fett decided in the interests of his partner it would be best to tag along.

"Very well." he said. "Obviously it would be desirable to capture this merchandise. And as the Slave I is better equipped with weapons than the Punishing One, I suppose I am to accompany you."

"That's the idea. We split the credits fifty-fifty."

Fett considered. One million credits was not something to be sniffed at.

"Agreed. How long will it take for you to get to Trangor Prime?"

"Umm… 'bout twelve hours at a 0.3 hyperdrive, I'm guessing."

"Fine. Trangor Prime's moon, in twelve hours." Fett cut the connection. No time to lose talking to his partner. As the navicomputer began to work out the coordinates needed to make the jump to hyperspace, Fett mused how he probably would have disintegrated Dengar a long time ago if he had not saved him from the Sarlacc's acid. Even so, saving his life did not make Dengar any less annoying. He was useful though. _Especially when he tells me where to find one million credits._

The calculations complete, the Slave I leapt into hyperspace, travelling impossibly fast towards Trangor Prime, leaving the vacuum empty once more.


	3. Trangor Prime

Trangor Prime's Moon- 12 hours later

A ship abruptly appeared from out of hyperspace, and gently began moving towards the large red planet before it. Another ship appeared, and did the same thing. And another. And another. Soon over five hundred ships were all landing on the huge planet.

Dengar cursed under his breath from the Punishing One's vantage point on the moon, as he watched practically every bounty hunter in the galaxy arrive at Trangor Prime. _Fett, when he gets here, is not going to be pleased_.

And he was right. As the Slave I arrived out of hyperspace and docked next to the Punishing One and Fett strolled through the air lock, Dengar could practically feel the anger in the air around the man.

"Why does every bounty hunter in the galaxy appear to be here, Dengar?" said Fett in a dangerous voice.

"Um…?" said Dengar pathetically._ Good point_, he thought. Why was every bounty hunter here? Surely they could not have all heard about the bounty in such a short space of time. Unless…

"I think the anonymous message was… sent to everyone. Funny really, if you think about it."

Fett shot him a cold look through his T-shaped visor, which nonetheless shut Dengar up very quickly. Fett gave himself several mental slaps. He had known there would be some kind of catch to the bounty, there had to be, it was too easy otherwise, but still he had fallen for it. But something else was now bothering him. Every bounty hunter in the galaxy had been sent an anonymous message, even Dengar, who technically wasn't a bounty hunter anymore. _Every bounty hunter except me_. Was it just a coincidence that he had received no message? Fett didn't think so. Perhaps someone doesn't want me here. Now why would that be?

Dengar haltingly spoke again. "We, um, should get going. If we want to get the bounty. You know, before anyone else does."

Fett sighed. There probably wasn't a bounty here at all, but he had wasted a lot of time and energy getting to Trangor Prime, and he didn't want to leave with nothing to show for it, if there really was a two million credit reward here. Or, even worse, if he left now, someone like Bossk could get the bounty. And there was still the matter of why he had received no anonymous message. That was worth investigating, at the least.

"Alright. Let's go."

The two men disappeared through the air lock onto the Slave I, and soon the ship was departing towards the giant rust-coloured planet of Trangor Prime.

Meanwhile, back on the Punishing One, a light began to flash on Dengar's holo-projector, which was automatically answered by the ship's auto-pilot system. A blue figure appeared on top of the machine, looking very worried.

"Dengar, don't go to Trangor Prime. I just received a hologram from Fornia- it's a trap; the Jedi are waiting there to ambush you." said the figure of Manaroo, Dengar's wife. She said her message to an empty ship. Fornia's message had arrived too late.

Trangor Prime

Luke Skywalker grasped the handle of his lightsaber nervously, feeling the familiar metal grooves under his fingers in an attempt to calm himself. Something was not right on this planet. Ever since the Jedi had arrived on Trangor Prime in secret two hours before, Luke had felt something wrong with the place. Something wrong in the Force.

The air was filled with the noise of ships landing on the planet. Glancing up from his hiding place in Trangor Prime's capital city, Luke watched as another bounty hunter's ship arrived. In several different places around him, Jedi were located in secret, waiting to surprise the bounty hunters when they started to attack Trangor Prime. Luckily, most of Trangor Prime's citizens had received evacuation warnings from the Republic, and had left the planet. Luke was in an alleyway with Han, Leia and some other Jedi.

"When do we strike, Master?" came the deep voice of a newly trained Jedi, Merk, to his left.

"When they do." whispered Luke back, and turned back to watching the sky. After another half an hour, all the bounty hunters seemed to have arrived, and were furtively making their way through the city. The Jedi remained out of sight.

"What's going on, do you think? Why aren't they openly attacking, if they're here to make war?" said Merk.

"I don't know." answered Luke truthfully. Something was definitely not right. The bounty hunters all seemed to be looking for something, rather than wanting to kill and cause trouble. Suddenly Luke felt a definite disturbance in the Force; a new presence had arrived on the planet. He glanced over to Leia, and her eyes told him she had felt it too.

"What is that?" she asked.

"I don't know," swallowed Luke, "but it reminded me of…" he trailed off. Leia understood what it reminded him of, though. Vader. The Emperor. It was the unmistakable presence of a Sith.

Meanwhile, the bounty hunters seemed to be growing impatient in their search.

"They're going to get violent." observed Han. Luke nodded. Now was the time to do something, before the bounty hunters started to loot and damage the city's empty houses.

"Alright. Let's go." said Luke, and, silently, the Jedi left their hiding places, taking the bounty hunters by surprise.

The battle was long and bloody. Even though the Jedi were superior fighters, the odds were against them. There were just too many bounty hunters. But eventually the Jedi began to get the upper hand, and Luke turned to Leia and Merk, who had been fighting beside him.

"I'm going to go and investigate what we felt earlier." he shouted to them. Merk nodded, but Leia shook her head.

"I'm coming with you!" she said.

"Me too!" said Han, blasting a droid bounty hunter into small pieces.

"Alright!" said Luke reluctantly, and the three of them turned away from the battle, heading into the centre of the city, where the Sith's presence was strongest.

Dengar and Fett had been at a loss as to where to find Suli and Zaen before the battle began. Dengar, as the Jedi and bounty hunters began to fight, became decidedly nervous. He didn't feel like dying just yet. He turned to Fett.

"I'm going!" he shouted over the blaster fire and awful sounds of the battle. "I don't care how much those kids are worth; what good's a million credits if you're too dead to spend it?"

Fett was going to agree with him, when something caught his eye. Han Solo, Skywalker and Leia were running away from the battle, into the city. _Something tells me they have something to do with me not receiving the message._

"Fine." said Fett. "Don't bother coming back, I'll call for the Slave I." And with that, he turned away from Dengar, and sprinted into the city after Skywalker, Solo and the princess.

Trangor Prime- Inner City

Chayni Tular walked through the narrow streets of Trangor Prime indifferently, making sure the Dark Side cloaked his appearance; just in case a stray Jedi recognised him. As he approached the large temple that dominated the centre of the city, he felt the Force grow around him. It was odd, two babies had the strongest Force-presence Tular had ever felt, even stronger than Sidious', his old Master. With his death, and the death of Vader, Tular was the only Sith left in the galaxy; he was the Master. And he needed an apprentice. And what better than beings that had the most powerful Force-presence Tular had ever felt?

He entered the temple, and saw the two babies on a raised platform in the middle of the hall. Evidently the inhabitants of Trangor Prime had sensed the Force palpitating off the children, and decided to leave them for the Jedi. _Fools_, sneered Tular. They had made it far too easy for him.

Fett silently ran behind the figures ahead of him. He had no clear idea what had made him run after them, but clearly they weren't happy about something. _Something that might be worth a lot of credits to the right person. _Information was a sure-fire way to make money in the galaxy these days. The trio stopped before a large temple in the centre of the city, and entered cautiously. Fett waited until they had been in the temple for about a minute, and ever silently followed them.

Once inside, Fett made an almost subconscious, automatic survey of the inner structure of the temple; layout, possible escape routes, good places to shoot from etc. Staying to the shadows, he watched Skywalker and Co. move slowly around inside.

"Luke, what's going on?" whispered Leia. It sounded like she'd shouted it in the quiet of the temple.

"I don't know." he whispered back. "There's another presence here, other than us and the… Sith."

Fett looked up sharply. _Sith?_ That was worth a lot of money. He listened even more intently.

"What do you think it is?" said Han.

"I don't know." Luke repeated. Something was definitely wrong. The third presence was the strongest he'd ever felt. "It feels like… two Force presences. Stronger than I've ever felt before." He approached a raised platform in the middle of the room, looking at it pensively.

Tular, who had also been watching from the shadows on the other side of the hall, decided it was time to leave. Skywalker had already discovered too much. He knew that a Sith was present in the galaxy long before Tular had intended him to. Tular had hoped the battle would distract Skywalker long enough for him to get the babies and leave. But unfortunately not. His plan was unravelling very quickly. _Definitely time to go_.

He began to move, when one of the babies he grasped in his arms began to cry. Instantly everyone in the temple looked in his direction.

"Who's there?" said Skywalker, activating his lightsaber. Leia did the same, while Han and Fett tightened the grip on their blasters.

Tular had no choice. He would have to reveal himself now. No matter. _But when Skywalker arrives back on Coruscant to tell the Chancellor the Sith have returned… oh wait… I'm the Chancellor. Good. _Putting down the babies Suli and Zaen, he activated his lightsaber, the thin red blade of energy illuminating the shadows around him, and made sure the Dark Side was definitely cloaking his appearance; a very useful thing, even though they would see him, they wouldn't be able to recognise who it was. And he stepped from the shadows.

Skywalker held his lightsaber up, and walked forwards purposefully to meet the Sith. He had no idea who it was, but it was a Sith. No time to wonder how they had survived, as the Sith swung his lightsaber round, and Luke managed to stop it with his. Leia let out a cry and attacked too, with Han shooting blaster bolts at the Sith.

Tular handled it all skilfully, deflecting blows and blaster fire, and before long all three lay unconscious before him, the Dark Side choking their minds. But he left them unconscious. _No use killing them yet. They're still useful in winning the Senate over._

Fett had seen enough. Beginning to envy Dengar's good sense at leaving during the battle, and chastising his own damn curiosity, he turned to leave as silently as he came.

Tular, of course, knew he was there. He had known as soon as he entered the temple. _How did he find out about the bounty, though?_ Tular had no time to wonder. Fett must be killed instantly. Unlike Skywalker, he wouldn't be able to control Fett. He would tell the highest bidder that the Sith had returned. _Pity,_ thought Tular, _he might have been useful._

"What's this? The great hunter Fett, refusing a bounty?" he said to the shadows.

Fett froze. _How did he know…?_ But, he found that like Luke, he had no time to wonder. The Sith was upon him, hacking and slashing with his lightsaber so quickly Fett hardly had time to dodge the blows. Also, he felt a cold, invisible hand begin to squeeze his throat. Gasping for air, he did not move quickly enough to dodge another lightsaber attack, and was rewarded with a deep and very painful cut on his leg. He fell to the ground instantly, clutching his leg and trying desperately to stem the flow of blood already seeping through his jumpsuit.

The Sith paused, mockingly looking down at the figure before him. He focused his thoughts, and the stranglehold on Fett's neck tightened.

Fett concentrated deeply through the pain, trying desperately to repel the clutching hand at his throat. Tular was surprised at the resistance, and felt even more remorseful at having to kill the man before him. _He would have been very useful._ But, it had to be done. Raising his lightsaber, and intensifying the choking hand around Fett's neck.

Fett looked up at the Sith, really wishing he'd gone with Dengar. _But, I didn't. No use worrying about it now._ He kept his eyes open, waiting for the death blow. He had faced death before, and wasn't going to flinch now.

Before Tular could deliver the final deadly stroke, however, blaster-cannon fire was heard outside, and the roof caved in in a huge explosion of dust and rubble. The stranglehold from his neck disappeared instantly, and Fett looked up, eyes blurring from massive blood loss and oxygen starvation, to see the Slave I hovering where the roof once was. _Stupid idiot must've followed me_, he thought vaguely, before slumping unconscious on the ground.

Dengar opened fire again on the Sith. The flurry of blaster fire was too much for Tular to deflect, and, pausing only to pick up Suli and Zaen, he retreated from the temple.

Landing the Slave I quickly, Dengar ran to the unconscious Fett, noting the huge wound on his leg.

"Time for me to save your life again, huh?" he muttered, throwing an arm around Fett's shoulders and dragging him unsteadily to his feet. From amongst the rubble, Skywalker began to stir, clutching at his head. Dengar noted it was probably a good time to leave, and hauled Fett aboard the Slave I.

Once in space, Dengar worriedly examined Fett. He was still unconscious, and looked like he had received awful injuries. He wouldn't last much longer without proper treatment, and Dengar couldn't provide that in space. _He won't make it to Corellia, and I don't know anyone closer who I can take him to. _A thought suddenly came to him, and Dengar almost hit his bandaged head that he didn't think of it sooner. Of course he knew someone closer! _Fornia! She's only on Coruscant. And we're on slightly better terms with each other now I've renounced bounty hunting._

Dengar punched in the co-ordinates for Coruscant in the navicomputer, and made the jump to hyperspace, praying to any god who would listen that his estranged sister would take pity on him, and let him look after Fett at her apartment.


	4. Coruscant Apartments

Fornia's Apartment, Coruscant- half an hour later

"I can confirm that a successful operation on the planet of Trangor Prime has greatly reduced the threat of bounty hunters to the galaxy. The Jedi Knights have once more proved their invaluable significance to maintaining the Republic as a free and democratic civilization." Said Chayni Tular, from a large screen hanging on Fornia's wall.

The HoloNews headlines were playing, Fornia idly watching them before galactic prime- time. The scene switched back to the HoloNews studio.

"Chancellor Tular there, commenting on the hostilities on Trangor Prime earlier today. Stay tuned, the winner of 'Galactic Idol' will be speaking to us shortly, but first; the weather. A cloudy evening for everyone on the capital, but elsewhere in the sector-"

Fornia's eyelids fluttered for a second, before she fell into a light doze, sprawled out on the sofa. It had been a long day at the senate. The bounty hunter threat had increased everyone's workload, Fornia's included, even though she was only a sub-senator. Suddenly the alarm on her front door rang out loudly.

"Ahhh!" she yelled, jumping into the air in shock. _Who's this? It better not be anyone complaining about the volume_ she thought furiously as she walked to the front door of her apartment, remembering the sermon she'd received off old-Mrs-Kilaaq-from-downstairs last time she fell asleep with the HoloVision on.

Pressing a button on a panel next to the door, the door slid open with a whooshing metallic noise, and Fornia was even more shocked by who was standing on the balcony outside her door.

"Dengar! What are you doing here?" she stared at her half-brother; he was covered in blood.

"I was on Trangor Prime." he said.

"Didn't you get my message?" she said angrily. Dengar gave her a hurt look.

"Yes, I got your message, but I decided to walk into the Jedi trap for the sheer fun of it." he said, deadpan. "Don't you want to know if I'm alright or not?"

"You can be sarcastic; clearly you're fine." she snapped back. "Again, what are you doing here?"

"A, uh, _friend_ of mine got badly injured on Trangor Prime. He's nearly dead. Can I look after him here? Corellia was too far to take him. You were nearest. Please, Forn'." he said pleadingly.

"Of course." said Fornia. No one deserved to die prematurely, bounty hunter or not. "Who's this friend, anyway?" she said, offhandedly.

Dengar paused, considering what Fornia would do when she learned who his 'friend' was. On the one hand, Fornia was very compassionate. _She probably wouldn't care who it is I bring in here, just as long they don't die._ On the other hand, Fornia might reconsider once she knew it was Boba Fett. He had a wonderful way of scaring the Force out of people. _Oh well_. _Only one way to find out_.

"It's Boba Fett."

Fornia's mouth dropped open, and then shut. And then dropped open again. She had the look of a person who'd recently been told they were to be the subject of an experiment to find out whether a blaster bolt to the head would kill you.

Eventually she seemed to regain her composure. "What? _The_ Boba Fett?" she croaked.

Dengar rolled his eyes. He really didn't have time for this. Fett was rapidly deteriorating; he was still unconscious, and had lost much more blood.

"No. It's the _other_ Boba Fett." he said waspishly. "Of course _the_ Boba Fett. Well? Are you going to let me save his life (again) or not?"

It was Fornia's turn to pause. "Oh, alright then. Why not? Bring him in." She said resignedly. _Idiot! Idiot idiot idiot!_ she told herself. _This is, without a doubt, the biggest mistake you've ever made. Even worse than the time you told Han Solo exactly where he could go… well, __**that**__ time ._ Dengar quickly retreated along the long balcony that ran in front of all the apartments on Fornia's floor, towards the landing platform at the end of the row of apartments, where the Slave I was waiting.

Fornia watched as Dengar unsteadily hauled Fett into her apartment. She had to admit he looked absolutely terrible; blood all over him, and he was limply leaning against Dengar, who had an arm around his shoulders to hold him up. Dengar struggled from the front door, through the living area to the stairs at the back of the apartment, leading to the second floor. Fornia hesitated, then followed him up.

She strolled into her spare room, expecting to find Dengar and Fett in there, but there was no-one in there.

"You've got to be kidding me!" she said, throwing open the door to her bedroom, and of course finding Dengar in there, laying the comatose Fett on her bed.

"This is _my_ room." she said angrily.

"I thought you had a spare room." said Dengar absently.

"I have got a spare room!" she replied incredulously.

"So what's the problem?" said Dengar, glancing up. "You can sleep in there."

"No, _he_ can go in there. Why does he have to go in my room? I'll have to sleep in that bed once he's gone. I don't want bounty hunter… blood everywhere!" she said.

"Shut up, Fornia. And can I have a little peace for this, please?" Dengar said, not too politely. "Go and watch HoloVision. Or something."

Fornia threw up her hands. "Fine! Whatever! Feel free to invade my house with your dead bounty hunter friends while I'm _sleeping_. Don't even be polite about it! See if I care!" she said, slamming the bedroom door behind her, before storming downstairs.

She flicked on the HoloVision projector once more, just in time to catch the final credits of the news. She sighed, annoyed. _Damn bounty hunters_.

Coruscant: Same time, different place

Another HoloVision was blaring in the corner of another Coruscant apartment. This apartment was slightly more luxurious than Fornia's, though, because it belonged to none-other than Chayni Tular, Supreme Chancellor and Sith-Lord-on-the-side.

"And now, a repeat of the headlines: earlier today a party of Jedi made their way to the planet of Trangor Prime, apparently to stop an attack on the planet's inhabitants by the bounty hunting faction. Supreme Chancellor Tular made this comment to a HoloNews crew earlier today:" said the voice of the HoloNews presenter, before the picture again changed to a close up of Chayni speaking to a reporter.

"I can confirm that a successful operation on the planet of Trangor Prime has greatly reduced the threat of bounty hunters to the galaxy-"

Ellay Ko'alo switched off the HoloVision in disgust.

"I dread to think what a bad operation would be like, if you consider that 'successful'." she said to the Supreme Chancellor.

Chayni grunted. "It doesn't matter. The public thinks it was successful. The Senate thinks it was successful." he paused, thinking. "And it was successful, to a certain degree. Many bounty hunters were destroyed, and not a few Jedi. And I have acquired two new apprentices." He glanced over to where the babies Suli and Zaen lay subdued in a corner.

"But Skywalker knows that the Sith have returned." Ellay reminded him.

"It doesn't matter. You forget, I am the Supreme Chancellor. I govern what he does. If I say 'don't tell anyone about the Sith returning', he won't."

"But what about Fett?" Ellay insisted. "He'll tell whoever pays him the most."

"I know." Chayni silently cursed to himself. Fett was still alive, somewhere in the galaxy, and he also happened to possess the most valuable information in the galaxy. He needed to be found, quickly. Perhaps he should entice Fett somewhere, lure him with a bounty. _After all,_ he thought, _it worked before._

One of the babies, the dark haired one, (_Suli_, Tular reminded himself), began to cry again. Ellay shushed it.

"Why do you need two? I thought the Sith only ever had one apprentice." she said curiously.

"The strongest will one day kill the other. That will show which one is the most suitable apprentice." Chayni replied curtly. _Ko'alo will have to be dispatched_, he thought. _She is far too familiar with me, and too inquisitive for her own good_. But for now, she remained useful, especially as a substitute mother for the babies.

Tular turned the HoloVision on once more, and watched the rest of HoloNews' glorified report on the Trangor Prime incident. All embellishment and propaganda, of course. Perfect for keeping the galaxy blind to what was really going on.

Fornia's Apartment: An hour later

Dengar finally re-appeared from upstairs, looking very relieved. Fornia glanced up from the HoloVision.

"How is he?" she asked.

"He's fine." said her brother, sitting down next to her heavily. "Well, he's not fine, but he's a lot better than he was. Still unconscious, but stable."

"Good." said Fornia, turning back to the screen. "You owe me big for this." she said. Dengar smiled , before standing up tiredly and making towards the front door. Instantly Fornia leapt up and blocked his path.

"Where in the galaxy do you think you're going?" she said dangerously.

"I'm going home." he said.

"_What_?!"

Dengar held up his hands. "Look, Fornia, I need you to do this for me."

"Do what? If you think I'm going to be some babysitter-"

"No, Forn', listen to me. Two years ago I was just like him; an unfeeling killing machine, keeping all my emotions locked away. But I realised the error of my ways before it was too late, and I -"

"Yes. I think I remember the 'unfeeling killing machine' period in your life _quite _well, Dengar. Being your sister and all." She said, through gritted teeth. "Get to the point. Are you saying you want to stop him ending up as a... a _droid_, by leaving here so I can _reform_ him?"

"Yes." said Dengar immediately. "Call me when you're done!" he opened the door, ready to step through.

"Hey! Wait! Dengar!... What am I going to tell him when he wakes up?" Fornia said finally, accepting defeat. "He might want to know where in the galaxy he is, and moreover where _you_ are."

"Make something up! You're a senator, aren't you? Lying is supposed to be easy for you people!"

Fornia's mouth opened once more in fury. Dengar sighed and spoke before his sister could launch into a lecture on how senators are much-less-deceitful-now-Palpatine-has-gone.

"Oh, just tell him Manaroo's broken her leg or something and I had to dash off." And before his half-sister could stop him, he stepped through the door, which snapped shut behind him, leaving Fornia alone with one unconscious fugitive.


	5. Conscious

Fornia's Apartment- the next day

Sunlight streamed through the window into Fornia's bedroom. Boba Fett's eyes opened, cautiously, taking in his surroundings. Something was different about his vision. Puzzled by this slightly, Fett suddenly realised what was wrong. He wasn't looking through the dark visor of his helmet.

_Dead?_ For a moment he thought so. But the sound of the traffic from outside, the dull ache in his muscles and the interior décor of the room quickly quashed this theory. He was still alive, somehow.

But where in the galaxy was he? From the constant buzzing noise of speeders and ships outside the window, Fett deduced he was on a heavily populated planet. _Corellia? Coruscant?_ Probably the former, he thought. It was Dengar's homeworld, and the last thing Fett remembered before falling unconscious on Trangor Prime was the Slave I, with Dengar at the controls, opening fire on the Sith Lord attacking him.

Fett tried to sit up, to see further out of the window and get a better idea of where he was, but was soon stopped by a terrible pain in his leg, and a rush of dizziness to his head. Clearly, his injuries were worse than he'd first thought upon regaining consciousness.

Gazing around the room as best he could without moving and further damaging himself, Fett noticed his armour was discarded in an untidy pile on a chair in the corner, and made a mental note to hit Dengar concerning that.

Suddenly the door to the room slid open.

"Dengar-" Fett began, but stopped when he saw that the figure who had entered the room was most definitely _not _Dengar. It was a woman, with dark hair and a brazenly confident manner that inexplicably reminded Fett of his bounty hunting partner.

"You're awake then." the woman said coolly.

"Yes." replied Fett, just as icily, not bothering to inquire as to who she was. He got the distinct impression that she would reveal her identity whether he invited her to or not, so why ask? Besides, it was painful to talk.

"I'm Senator Fornia Alorida." she said, stressing the 'senator' ever so slightly. "I'm Dengar's sister. He's left you in my care while… um… he went to see Manaroo, because she's… pregnant." finished Fornia, casting around desperately for an excuse as to why her brother left Fett in her apartment.

"Oh." He replied.

Silence fell between them. Fornia looked at him impatiently, annoyed by Fett's ability to remain detached despite narrowly escaping death.

"You're on Coruscant, if you wanted to know." she said finally. "And you're pretty lucky to be here, too. You nearly died."

"Not for the first time." he replied, indifferently.

Fornia inwardly screamed in frustration. She was really going to kill Dengar. Now she knew why he had been so quick to leave the day before. Who could stand being around this emotionless idiot for too long? Beginning to dearly regret her hasty acceptance of looking after him for Dengar, she spoke with forced calm.

"If you don't need anything, I'll be going. The Republic won't run itself." she said coldly, before turning on her heel and marching smartly from the room. Fett watched her go, with a tiny amount of contempt, if he ever allowed himself to feel contempt. Who was she to act so high-and-mighty? It wasn't as if he'd asked Dengar to leave him here. Ignoring the sharp pain in his leg, he sat up, seeing further out of the window. The Senate building was visible in the distance, it's squat form sticking out amongst the tall buildings of the capital. Suddenly he was reminded of the reason he was here; there was a Sith at large in the galaxy again. He wondered if Skywalker had told the senate yet. If so, the only valuable thing he had earned from the Trangor Prime incident, knowledge of the Sith's return, would be worthless.

Senate Building- Supreme Chancellor's Office

"You are sure it was a Sith?" said Chayni Tular.

"Certain. Only a Force-user could wield a lightsaber like that. And it definitely wasn't a Jedi." replied Luke Skywalker, the dark bruises on his face livid from the Sith's attack.

"This is terrible." said Chayni, grimly. "I give you my leave to do whatever you must about this problem."

"Thank you, Chancellor. Do you think it would be wise to inform the Senate of this?" he said, after a slight pause.

"No!" said Chayni sharply. "No, I do not advise that at all. We cannot trust the senators to keep this secret." he explained. "It only takes one of them to leak this information to HoloNews, or some such station, and we will have a mass galactic panic on our hands. I think the best course of action would be to keep this situation between ourselves, until it is resolved."

Luke nodded. The Chancellor was right, of course.

"But you do have my permission to search for this Sith." Chayni continued. "If you can find him, we may have a chance to stop him."

"Of course. Thank you, Chancellor. I will try." said Luke, bowing, and making his way to the door.

Once alone, Chayni pensively stared from the large window in his office, over the sprawling expanse of Coruscant. Things were not going well. Skywalker knew the Sith order had survived somehow, and Chayni would not be able to divert him by searching for the Sith for long. And Boba Fett was still out there, alive, Chayni was sure of it, and would no doubt be looking for someone who would pay him handsomely for his information. He was distracted by the holo-projector on his desk informing him he had a new message. It was from Ko'alo.

"I've sent the message to Fett, like you told me to." she said. "Something along the lines of 'Will pay richly for information concerning incidents on Trangor Prime. Reply as soon as you receive this, to arrange where to meet and when etc'. No reply yet, though."

Chayni sighed, slightly relieved. That would take care of Fett. The message was just vague enough to attract Fett's attention, but not enough that it would cause him to be suspicious. At least, Chayni hoped. Now all he had to do was wait until Fett replied, however long that took. He was prepared to wait.


	6. Earning Respect

Fornia's Apartment- one week later

Fornia poked her head round the doorway of her bedroom, before entering, carrying a tray of food. Fett lay there, silent as ever, and by all appearances seemed to be sleeping. It had been a week since he'd arrived, and Fornia was by no means on better terms with the hunter. Every day she would dutifully enter the room, making sure he was still alive, bringing him food (which he barely touched), but they hadn't exchanged words since the day he'd first regained consciousness. The only time Fornia had spoken during the past seven days was when she sent a hologram to the head Corellian senator to inform him that she couldn't attend the Senate due to an 'unavoidable family crisis'. She did feel slightly guilty about having to take time off at a time when the Senate needed every employee it had, but was nonetheless relieved to escape her heavy workload for a while.

Laying the tray on the beside table, she curtly turned around to leave, but hesitated when her eyes fell on the Mandalorian armour that Dengar had left in a heap on a chair in the corner of the room. Strangely fascinated by its dented yet sleek appearance, she approached the chair, and tentatively extended a hand towards the armour…

"Don't touch that."

Fornia whirled around instantly, startled.

"I thought you were asleep." she said.

Fett shook his head slightly.

"Well, what were you doing, then?" said Fornia impatiently, vexed slightly that Fett had scared her so easily.

"Thinking." he replied simply.

_About what? How lucky you were to wake up here with your own personal senator-servant, I suppose,_ she thought.

"And _why_ exactly can't I touch your armour?" she asked, contemptuously.

For the first time in a very long time, Fett was speechless. Nobody had ever had the audacity to talk back to him, to question what he said, since he was very young. Yet here was this woman, clearly not intimidated by him or his fearsome reputation in the slightest. He couldn't understand it.

"It's dangerous." he said, after a pause. "You might've activated a weapon."

"It would've been a terrible shame if I blew myself up and wasn't around to bring you food anymore." she said venomously. For a week she'd let this man stay in her home, brought him food, lied to miss work, yet the only time he spoke to her was to tell her what to do. She fully intended to put him in his place, whether he was the most infamous bounty hunter in the galaxy or not. Besides, she had been raised amongst bounty hunters and mercenaries on Corellia, before joining the Rebel Alliance and getting into politics, so she was more than qualified for holding her own in an argument against one.

After a moment of complete silence, she spoke again.

"Well, I've brought you your food, so it seems I'm no longer required here. Excuse me." she said acidly, before sweeping from the room, leaving Fett utterly speechless. _No-one_ had ever had the nerve to speak to him, Boba Fett, one of the most feared men in the galaxy, like that before. A small amount of respect, as well as the usual disdain, was in his eyes as Fornia left the room.

Senate Building- Chancellor's office

Chayni sat alone in his office, meditatively staring into space. A week had gone by and there was still no reply from Fett. It seemed the bounty hunter was testing his patience, making him wait for a reply. That was the only explanation Chayni could see as to why Fett had not replied to his message. The thought crossed his mind that perhaps, despite being rescued before Chayni could kill him, Fett had died from his injuries anyway. It was a possibility, if not a very likely one.

He pressed a button on the holo-projector on his desk, recording a message to send to Ko'alo.

"Has there been a reply from the bounty hunter yet? If not, do not send any more messages to him. It will not persuade him to respond any faster. And, finally, I need you to do some research. Try to find out exactly how he found out about the bounty."

The message recorded and sent, Chayni sat back in his chair reflectively. He had an idea that whoever had informed Fett about the bounty had been his rescuer on Trangor Prime. And, if the rescuer could be found, it was more than likely Fett would be found too. Time was running out, and although he still planned to lure Fett to him with a bounty, it was prudent to have a backup plan also.

Fornia's Apartment building- Lower landing platform.

In a dark corner of a little used landing platform of Fornia's building, the Slave I sat, silent and threatening. On board the craft, a light flashed on Boba Fett's holo-projector.

"Boba Fett, you have a new hologram message." said the auto-pilot system, to no-one. Chayni's message still waited to be answered, after a week. Boba Fett, lying in bed far above, without a link to his ship, had no idea of the message's arrival.


	7. Seeking

Coruscant: Lower levels

Two Days Later

Ellay Ko'alo moved through the bustling crowds of the city, towards a seedy-looking bar, lit up by the various luminous signs decorating the front of the building. The gaudy lighting was possibly unnecessary at that time of day, not that this was of any concern to Ko'alo. She was far more likely to get coherent information on Fett's whereabouts before the crowds hit the bar as they would do later on. The Coruscant citizens merely hurried past the bar for the moment, but Ko'alo stepped unworriedly up to the door, and entered.

Once inside, she stepped brazenly through the cool darkness of the entrance hall, towards the main bar area, but before she could go inside, a burly Rodian grabbed her by the arm, and slammed her against the wall.

"You're a pretty one, aren't you? But it's invitation only in here, girl." he growled at her in Basic. Ko'alo rolled her yellow eyes, and before the Rodian knew what was happening she had snatched out her blaster and had it jammed to his scaly green head.

"I'd better have yours, then, hadn't I?" she said back, pressing the blaster into his head a little harder with each word. The tough facade of the alien instantly faded, and whimpering in humiliation after being threatened by a woman, he scampered from the bar. Ko'alo replaced her blaster in the holster at her side, glaring dangerously around the bar to see if anyone else felt like trying it on with a 'pretty little alien'. No one met her gaze.

Feeling slightly better, she stepped up to the bar, and signalled for the barman to come over.

"What can I get you?" the short, sweating human asked her.

"A bounty hunter." She replied, watching him intently.

The man's eyebrows knotted together in confusion. "I don't think we do those here... is that some kind of Outer Rim drink?"

Ko'alo suppressed a sigh of annoyance.

"Do you have any bounty hunters in here tonight? I've got a job needs doing." She lied.

The man's face darkened.

"No, no bounty hunters." He said, quickly, his eyes flicking to the corner. He paused, looking at her for a moment, as if considering whether he should tell her something more. Ko'alo made no movement, waiting for him to crack first.

"Tell you the truth," the man said finally, lowering his voice, "we've hardly seen any bounty hunters in here since the Trangor Prime thing."

Ko'alo decided to play dumb. "Trangor Prime? Never heard of it. What happened?"

"Don't tell me you don't know? It's all over HoloNews."

"Enlighten me." said Ko'alo, with forced patience. She was on the right track to finding Fett, she could feel it. No need to wreck it now by being heavy handed. _Chayni'd kill me._

The man shuddered. "Massacre. Those Jedi, killed half the bounty hunters in the galaxy in one day. But I'm not the best person to ask." he pointed to a blue-haired human in the corner. "Sya, over there, could tell you more. He was there."

"He's a bounty hunter?"

"Yeah," said the barman, "but keep that to yourself. The Chancellor's coming down hard on bounty hunters. Blaming all the problems in the galaxy on them. Bad time to be a mercenary." he said.

_Not if you work __**for**__ the Chancellor,_ she thought to herself. "Thanks." she added out loud to the barman, before slipping from the bar and walking in the direction of Sya, in the corner.

Coruscant: Same time, different place.

_It is entirely normal, when one has a person of quite possibly historical significance in one's apartment, for one to be curious about said person. Entirely normal._

A mantra which had been thought, muttered, written down and generally drilled into Fornia's brain in practically every way possible during the two previous days. Even so, she couldn't help the prickling feeling of shame she experienced every time she found herself wondering _what was he doing, what was he thinking, how could he sit up there in silence for nearly two weeks straight? _Even though she told herself again and again there was nothing wrong with being curious about this man who had, by a combination of chance and galactic geography, been thrown into her care, she still felt _guilty_.

Coruscant: Lower Levels

Back in the bar

Sya, the blue haired man in the corner, gave out an almost tangible reek of self-pity that filled the immediate vicinity, saturating Ellay as she moved closer towards him. Sya, she concluded indifferently, was the typecast for most of the creatures one was likely to meet in any seedy bar in any system throughout the galaxy: subdued, not too easy on the eye, and most importantly; too wrapped up in their own unimportant lives to notice as you emptied them of useful information. Which boded well for Ellay Ko'alo. With luck, this rather unremarkable (apart from the vivid, electric blue hair) humanoid would be the final link in the rather tedious chain she was under instruction to follow until it lead to Boba Fett. For two days she had exhausted the squalid drinking establishments of the capital, to no avail, and by this time, she was getting bored of being manhandled by dim-witted barflies, and forcing herself to converse with drunken aliens in the vain hope that it would lead her to Fett. And, thus far, it hadn't. She could only hope this blue haired man would change that.

At this point, it might be beneficial to know Sya's vital statistics. Sya Jarpo was twenty two, of middle height, light skinned, with no living relatives he knew or cared about, apart from his mother, who still lived on Sya's homeworld, an unremarkable planet just inside the Outer Rim. Those were the rather ordinary facts about the human. But Sya was far from an ordinary drunk in a small bar. For a start, he had bright, sky blue hair, usually thick and full of life, but excessive alcohol had drained that quality from it for now, so Sya's hair hung limply over his forehead, dangling into his eyes. Eyes, that were through no fault of his own, bright yellow.

The reason for Sya's eyes to be bright yellow lay with his mother, a human who had, in a fit of teenage rebellion, decided to parent offspring with the most ludicrously coloured alien she could find on her unremarkable planet just inside the Outer Rim. Revenge on her parents after they refused to let their daughter go to a dance audition on the next planet. The result of that was Sya, blue haired, golden eyed, but otherwise distinctly average.

And now, twenty two years later, Sya sat in a Coruscant bar, contemplating the nature of his existence, in between growing slowly more and more intoxicated. So far, he had come to the conclusion that his life had been a series of impetuous decisions, largely made by other people. His very existence was an act of puberty fuelled recklessness on his mother's behalf, nothing more. He was a planned mistake, if such a thing was possible.

As the alcohol gradually blurred his vision, it sharpened his mind and the thoughts running through it. Sya began to reflect on recent events. He had taken up bounty hunting very recently, after his mother had fallen pregnant again. Sya's father had left when Sya was very young. He had become bored with raising a child, he wanted to go out and see the galaxy, so one bright sunny day he just walked out of their tiny dwelling, and never came back. Until, that is, three months ago, when Sya's alien father turned up on the doorstep, claiming sanctuary. He was in big trouble with big criminals, he owed a lot of unseemly beings a lot of money he didn't possess, so wouldn't his only son and the only woman he'd ever truly loved help him out?

Two weeks later he was gone again, and good riddance, but he left a reminder of himself in their house, another scar imprinted on their lives. Sya's mother was pregnant again.

With barely enough money to keep two people, Sya's mother despaired of what to do. And then Sya heard through the underworld grapevine (he worked in a somewhat outside-of-the-legal-framework casino to make ends meet) of an enormous sum of money being offered for a bounty, enough to solve all his mother's monetary worries. It struck Sya now, in retrospect, that the whole Trangor Prime affair was far too convenient, too good to be true. But two million credits can cloud even the best hunter's judgment. So he spent all his scraped together savings on a battered old ship, and with the promise to his mother that he would return with glory and riches, he set off to seek his fortune in the big wide galaxy.

Of course, Trangor Prime had been a set up, a bloodbath, and Sya had been lucky to escape with his life, let alone the prize of two million. But it still left him with the problem of his mother. He had no money to return to her with, no promised fortune that would solve all her troubles. He stared pensively into the questionable alcohol concoction on the stained table before him, wondering if his situation could possibly improve in any way, when a shadow disrupted the flickering light from the main bar area. Sya glanced up, to see, silhouetted in the murky light, Ellay Ko'alo. His gaze fell on the green skin, yellow cat's eyes and red feathery hair, and then the grey vest and grey combat trousers, and black military boots. His initial impression was a seductive, exotic bird that had been crammed into an army uniform. A misfit, like himself. Someone who could understand his pain. Oddly enough, initial impressions are rarely accurate.


	8. Getting Closer

Coruscant: Back in the apartment

Rain, quietly but persistently, began to drum against the window, disrupting Fett from an uneasy sleep. He rarely slept deeply; it was wise to never be fully off-guard in his profession. In fact, he hadn't slept soundly since he was a child. He glanced out of the window at the dreary, rain-soaked metropolis, and wincing at the sharp pain he still felt when he did so. The injuries he had received on Trangor Prime were some of the worst he had ever experienced, and recovery was becoming a tediously slow affair. _But I won't recover at all unless I move at some point._

Cautiously, he moved his leg out of the bed and rested it on the floor. The pain was overwhelming, but receded quickly, and he swung his other leg round, pulling himself into an upright position on the edge of the bed. Breathing deeply, and furiously blinking back the black spots that threatened to cloud his vision completely, he stood upright. And abruptly fell to the floor.

Fornia had just reached the top of the stairs, still unsure why she was upstairs without any real reason to be, when she heard the loud 'thwump' noise from her room, followed by an unmistakable 'ouch'. She dashed into the room to find Fett sitting on the floor, leaning against her bed, a hand pressed against his head.

"What happened?" she asked, half-concerned, half-amused.

"I fell over." He replied, in a blank voice.

"What were you doing?" Fornia pressed, struggling to keep the smile from her face now.

"Standing up."

"Ah. Well, I'm not surprised. You need to eat more, if you want to be able to stand up. Unless you like blacking out." She added, smirking.

He didn't reply, but attempted to pull himself back onto the bed. Fornia moved forwards to help, but Fett shot her a look that clearly said 'don't even think about it'. Fornia rolled her eyes.

"Look, you just passed out. You clearly need help; it's not something to be ashamed of. Don't be so proud." She said irritably. Breezily ignoring a thousand death stares, she moved towards Fett and helped him back into a sitting position on the edge of bed.

"There, that wasn't so bad, was it?" she said, sardonically, turning to leave.

"Why do you talk to me like that?" Fett said abruptly. Fornia turned around, surprised.

"Like what?"

"Like you don't care who I am."

"Why should I?" Fornia said incredulously. "I'm a senator, Boba. I've seen much worse than some bounty hunter. My _boss_ is worse than you." She checked herself. She hadn't meant to call Fett by his first name. There was a very tangible pause.

"Well, I suppose he doesn't pass out all over the place, so in that respect he's not as bad as you." Fornia winced inwardly, at the stupidity of her last comment. But, at least it was better than the awful silence that kept falling in the room.

"At least you don't have to bring him food all the time." _Where did that come from? Friendly banter? I must have hit my head harder than I thought, _Fett thought disbelievingly.

Fornia was just as taken back as Fett, but she recovered quicker.

"You'd think so, wouldn't you? But I can't remember how many lunch breaks I've spent catering to every whim of the Supreme Chancellor." She grinned.

And, perhaps most surprising of all, she received an exceptionally small smile, but a smile nonetheless, in return.

Coruscant: Lower Levels

Back in the bar

"Can I get you something?" Ko'alo breathed at the bewildered human.

"I, uh, no… what?" Sya stammered by way of reply.

Ellay smiled widely, and sat down opposite the blue-haired man, who positively squirmed in embarrassment at her closeness to him.

"It's Sya, right?" Ellay inquired.

"Yeah." Sya said blankly, his mouth blatantly hanging open.

"The barkeeper said I should speak to you." She said in a low voice.

"Wha- what can I do for you?"

Ellay paused, pretending to consider whether Sya was worth her information. The human leant in, curiosity winning him over. Ellay struggled to suppress a smirk. _Like flies to a bantha. Too easy._

"Well, I need to find a bounty hunter, you see?"

"I'm a bounty hunter!" Sya nearly cried out. Ellay shushed him.

"Not so loud! I only want the best hunter for this job." She shot a seductive smile at him. Ellay could practically see the human's head swell at her comment.

"What do you need me to do?" Sya asked eagerly.

"I want to find out about the Trangor Prime incident." She said, leaning forward, a hard edge coming into her voice.

Sya recoiled. "I don't want to talk about it."

Ellay bit her lip, sensing her prey escaping. _Mustn't be heavy handed._

"I'm sorry. I know it must be difficult. I can't imagine how brave you must have been to survive it." She said, an awful, comforting tone in her voice. She patted Sya's hand reassuringly.

He visibly relaxed. _Now your ego's nicely massaged, let's press on, _Ellay thought contemptuously.

"Was it as bad as they're saying it was?"

"Ten times worse." Sya answered, truthfully. "I honestly don't know how I survived. Some of the best hunters in the galaxy were murdered that day."

"Like who?" Ko'alo pressed on. She was so close now, she could _feel_ it.

"I, well, I don't know any names really, but…" he trailed off. Ko'alo could wait no longer. _Now or never._

"Do you know if… Boba Fett was there?" She held her breath. _Make or break time._

Sya paused, and for one heart-stopping moment Ellay thought she'd blown it completely, until he spoke.

"I don't know. I can't really remember; it was so big, you know, the battle? He might have been. I don't know."

Ellay almost had to physically stop herself from shooting Sya's big blue head off there and then. _Another dead end. And I was so sure this time._ She was just about to give Sya a hollow thanks and leave, when he spoke again.

"Dengar was there though. I definitely remember him. He's the guy with the bandages, isn't he? I saw him leaving during the battle. He seemed pretty scared, but then, everyone was." He smiled at Ellay. "Hope that helped."

"What does Dengar have to do with anything?" Ellay asked, losing the power for the first time in their exchange. Sya looked at her incredulously. Even _he _knew Fett and Dengar were allies.

"Dengar is Boba Fett's bounty hunting partner." He said. "If he was there, Fett probably was, too. Why do you want to know, anyway?"

"I told you," she said sardonically, "I only want the best hunter for this job." Without another word, she gave Sya a suggestive wink and marched breezily from the bar, feeling as light as the feathers that made up her scarlet hair. Who knew some pathetic little human in a dingy bar would hold the key to this whole mystery?

She walked back through the bustling crowds to her speeder, jumped in and took off into the busy flying traffic of the capital. She activated the hologram device on the control panel of the speeder, and recorded a message for Chayni.

"Finally deciphered it, Chancellor. Looks like the informant was Dengar, Fett's bounty hunting partner. Want me to pay him a visit?" She sent the message, and received a reply almost immediately.

"Find this other hunter, Dengar. He will lead us to Fett. You have done well, Ko'alo." The transmission ended abruptly.

"Thanks, boss." She said sarcastically, but knowing that she had just received exceptionally high praise from Tular, even if it was a little frosty. _Now to find Dengar,_ she thought malevolently, setting off for her ship, which was currently stored at Chayni's building. _Ready or not, here I come. I hope for his sake he's ready, because I am coming to kill._


	9. Memories

Fornia's apartment building- Lower landing platform. 

On board the Slave I, the voice of the ship still rang out into the silence every ten minutes.

"Boba Fett, you have a new hologram message."

For two days the auto-pilot system had repeated this warning, without any response. The ship, like its owner, was not unintelligent. It perceived Fett was not in the immediate vicinity, so proceeded to make sure that, wherever he was, Fett would receive his hologram.

Coruscant: Fornia's apartment

For a few moments, a silence, still decidedly awkward, yet oddly comfortable, filled Fornia's room. Fett's small smile lingered, and for perhaps the first time, the two humans did not feel complete contempt for each other. Suddenly the silence was broken by a shrill beeping noise emitting from Fett's armour, still lying on a chair in the corner of the room.

"I didn't do anything" said Fornia quickly, wondering if one of the weapons Fett had darkly hinted at before had been detonated.

"No," Fett said matter-of-factly, "it's the comlink to my ship. I have received a message."

"Maybe it's Dengar." Fornia said, half to herself, as she reached across to pick up Fett's helmet, which was emitting the noise.

She barely noticed how surprisingly light it was to hold, or the just audible 'Thank you' as Fett took the helmet from her. The action of casually passing the helmet, and the thought of her half-brother had suddenly taken her back to Corellia, ten years ago…

At twenty years old, Fornia was no restrained representative of democracy in the New Republic, she was a hedonist youth of the Corellian criminal underworld. Today was to be another adventure, she was making her way through the mists of a swamp to a shadowy group someway ahead of her. As she drew closer, she could make out Dengar checking his swoop-bike, surrounded by a crowd of friends and followers. Even though this was a private race, a large crowd would always arrive to watch Dengar race. A short distance away, a youth was preparing his own bike, surrounded by no-one.

Han Solo and Dengar were about to race.

Fornia made her way through Dengar's crowd confidently, until she was beside the man who had the same mother as her.

"Confident?"

"Of course." Dengar grinned, shamelessly over-confident as he always was before a race. But then his youthful face grew serious. "He's good, you know, Forn'. I've seen him race a few times." He indicated to Solo, who was drawing his swoop-bike up to the starting line.

Fornia laughed derisively. "He might be good, but you're my brother. And you've won practically every race you've competed in, Dengar. You're going to be ten thousand credits better off by tonight, and he'll be nobody."

She took his racing helmet off from where it sat on his swoop-bike, and handed it to him. He smiled reluctantly, fastening it over his brown hair.

"I'll see you in a minute." He said, and lined his bike up alongside Solo's. Someone fired a blaster into the air to start the race, and the two competitors shot off into the mists, heading deep into the crystal swamps of Agrilat.

Fornia watched them go, confident of her brother's ability. He would win. He always did.

"Fornia?"

Suddenly, she found herself back in the apartment, with Fett watching her curiously. He held out his helmet for her to put back with the rest of his armour.

"What was your message about?" She asked, quickly trying to forget the memory of Dengar's final swoop-bike race.

"I don't know. It's a hologram message, so I can only access it from my ship."

"Oh. Do you think it's important?" Fornia asked. Secretly, she was concerned it was Dengar, checking up on Fett. Even though she had not done much to fulfil it, she remembered her promise to Dengar when he left Fett in her care. She was meant to be bringing out the human in him, and had spent most of the past ten days not speaking to the hunter.

"I'm not sure." Fett replied. Personally, he harboured no thoughts that the message could be from Dengar. He strongly suspected it would be in some way connected to the Trangor Prime incident. Whatever it was, messages sent to him were usually of some importance, so it was vital he heard it. But as he had said to Fornia, there was no way he could receive the message without being on the Slave I; he had no holographic receiving devices on him.

So now Fett found himself in an awkward position: he needed to hear this message, whatever it was, but he couldn't even stand up, much less go down to the Slave I. Which meant he would have to ask Fornia to go to the ship and re-transmit the message to a holo-projector here in the apartment. He was reluctant to let anyone on his ship, and found himself especially reluctant to give Fornia access. But he needed to hear the message.

"Well, I'm sure whatever it is can wait." Said Fornia breezily, still anxious it was Dengar checking up on her.

"I doubt it. Holograms sent to me are usually important." He said coldly, perhaps because he had to now force himself to ask for her help.

"How do you propose to get to your ship to hear it, then, if it's so important? You couldn't even stand up earlier." Fornia said, just as coldly. Fett did not reply, but merely looked at her, waiting for her to catch on. Or perhaps he did not reply because he couldn't bring himself to vocally ask for her help. Either way, Fornia understood.

"No." She said immediately. "I'm not going. You said so yourself; what if I activated a weapon or something? I'd blow the whole building up."

"You wouldn't. The access codes will override the security system."

Fornia hesitated. Much as she didn't want to hear from Dengar, if the message was from him, she did like the thought of having a look inside the infamous Slave I, and being one of the few people to do so who did not have a price on their head. The pros definitely outweighed the cons. And, logically, if Dengar wanted to send her a holo checking up on Fett, he'd sent it to _her_, not Fett.

"Alright," she sighed, seemingly defeated, "what are the access codes?"

Minutes later, she was walking quickly down the public walkway that ran in front of all the apartments on her floor, to the landing platform jutting out of the side of the building. The Slave I was nowhere to be seen. For one brief moment she thought Dengar had flown off in it ten days ago, but she realised her own small ship, used for short journeys to Corellia on Senate assignments, was gone. Dengar must have taken that. But where was Fett's ship?

Fornia thought logically for a second. Dengar would have probably left it on one of the Lower landing platforms, rarely used because of the high rate of ship theft in the lower levels of Coruscant. But the Slave I was probably imposing enough to deter any criminals.

She stepped into the express elevator that ran parallel to all the landing platforms, and typed in the very first landing platform into the control panel. Upon arrival, she found no Slave I. She tried the next nine landing platforms, with the same result. Beginning to panic, as there were about 200 floors in her building, all with their own landing platforms, she typed in the 10th platform code. She stepped out of the elevator, and immediately saw the battered hull of Slave I, nestled in a corner, and untouched by any criminals.

Approaching the ship cautiously, she punched in the access code and the entry hatch slid open noiselessly. Feeling decidedly nervous, she walked up the ramp to the entry hatch, ducked to avoid the low doorway, and found herself in the cold, clinical, metal surroundings of the Slave I's interior. To her left were bleak looking prisoner cages, which she looked at in horrified fascination before focusing on her task. Where was Fett's holo-projector? Probably on the cockpit control panel somewhere, she thought to herself. Making her way to the elevated cockpit, she scrambled up and sat in the pilot's seat, reflecting briefly on her bizarre situation; on board a bounty hunter's ship, a world she thought she'd walked away from ten years ago when she joined the Rebellion.

Pushing the thought to the back of her mind, she surveyed the control panel before her, finding the holo-projector quickly. For a moment, she contemplated watching the message herself before sending it up to her holo-projector in the apartment, but thought better of it. It was Boba Fett's message, after all. Who knew what he'd do if she watched it first?

She re-transmitted the message to the apartment, and quickly left the Slave I, not because she was unnerved by it, but because being on a ship linked to the criminal underworld reminded her far too much of her past on Corellia, something she'd tried to forget for ten years.

She quickly made her way back to the elevator, and went back to the 100th floor, and entered apartment 108. The front door shut behind her, and she leaned against it for a second, regrouping. She didn't want to rush back upstairs. Being around Fett kept reminding her of Corellia. And she didn't want to face that just yet.

A/N: Once again, apologies for the delay. I went through quite a block when trying to start this chapter. But, anyway, it's progressing quite well now. Anyone who read the Diaries first will have noticed by now that while the plot is basically the same, details in this story are radically different to my original version, i.e. the diaries. But don't worry, it will end in the same place. My Star Wars muse is now back with a vengeance, so expect an update real soon. Promise!


	10. Message and Messenger

Coruscant: Fornia's apartment

Fornia was inside the Slave I. Inside _his_ ship. Any tentative truce that Fett had imagined between the two of them was dissolving rapidly as he pictured her on his ship, seeing her as clearly as he had a few minutes ago. She would walk about confidently, carelessly; her shoes would land heavily upon Slave I's metal floor. She would _touch_ things. Like she had tried to touch his armour. Fett remembered that moment very well. She had entered the room, she had assumed he was asleep, without any indication of caution she had made a grab for his armour. The way she had jumped when he reprimanded her had given him some gratification, he had to admit to himself.

Fornia appeared in the doorway, carrying a holo-projector in her hands. Her sudden reappearance had almost taken Fett by surprise. If Boba Fett ever _could_ be taken by surprise.

"I sent your message to this." She said. She sounded breathless.

"You were gone for a while." Said Fett coolly. His desire to be civil to her had evaporated. Fornia immediately flared up in response.

"Oh, for your information, I had absolutely _no_ idea where Dengar left your ship, and as there are about two hundred landing platform, I think I did pretty well to find it so quickly! I didn't realise there was a time limit. I'll delete the message and try to do it again in under a minute, if you like."

"Alright, sorry!" Fett said, his voice rather louder than usual, "I was just worried-" Fett stopped. Had he just apologised to her? Fornia, by her raised eyebrows, seemed just as astonished. "I was just worried about my ship."

"Well, you needn't have been," she said quickly, "it's-"

The lights went out. Fornia and Fett stared at each other through the sudden half-light. Fornia pressed every button on the security panel next to the door. Nothing happened.

"Power cut, I think. I think I remember the holonews guy saying to expect them…" she said.

"It's not just us." Fett said through the gloom. He was pointing out of the window. Fornia looked and saw the building opposite, usually flecked with thousands of lights, was in darkness too.

"Ugh. I wonder how long before it comes back on." Fornia stepped to the window and rested her head against the cool glass. "There was something I wanted to watch on Holovision tonight."

Fett smiled, and was relieved to find that Fornia, still at the window, had not seen it. So much for the evaporation of civility. He cleared his throat.

"Oh, the message. Sorry." Fornia turned around.

"Me too." Was he saying sorry again? What was wrong with him? "About the power cut."

"Don't worry, it'll be repeated." Fornia smiled, genuinely, and sat herself cross-legged at the end of the bed. She handed Fett the projector. He started to play the message, then paused it. He looked at Fornia, the slightest hint of a plea in his eyes.

"It is _my_ message." He said.

Fornia blinked, then smiled. "Of course. I'll leave you to it, and you can hear it in total isolation, on one condition; if you can stand up for at least thirty seconds."

Fett clenched his jaw, and gave her a frozen look.

"Fine." he said shortly. Fornia grinned at him. Fett worked extremely hard to remain expressionless. He hit the play button. The darkened room was filled with jerky, flickering blue light. A figure hovered on top of the projector, a young alien women whose species Fett could not name. She had short feathery hair and an equally feathery tail billowing out from behind her, which contrasted oddly with the military vest, trousers and boots she wore. Fett noted, a familiar grim feeling settling in his stomach, the holster that hung from the woman's belt, complete with a blaster.

"I am interested to know about the battle of Trangor Prime. I will pay very well for information. Contact me if you want to make a lot of credits."

The message ended. Fornia looked at Fett.

"Who, er, was she?"

"I've never seen her before in my life."

Fornia looked at her nails. "Well, how did she expect you to be able to contact her, then? She didn't leave a name. Is she a bounty hunter too?" Fornia's voice sounded worryingly casual.

"No. I don't know. I told you, I've never met her. You're right, though." Fett said abruptly. Fornia looked up. "Why didn't she leave a name?" Fett was genuinely puzzled, so much so that he didn't even attempt to hide his confusion from Fornia. "Unless… it's a trap." He was talking to himself more than to her. "She left an ambiguous message in the hope that I'd try to track her down."

"So. What would that achieve?" Fornia asked, seemingly intrigued.

"So she could spring a trap on me if I tracked her down. She could be waiting with… ten thermal detonators, or something."

"Why?" Said Fornia. "Just because you're Boba Fett? Do you get that sort of thing a lot?"

Fett caught himself almost smiling again. "Maybe," he said, "but I think this is to do with Trang-" he stopped himself. Could he trust her? Fornia looked back at him, levelly, though her blue eyes were wider than usual. "I think it's to do with what happened on Trangor Prime."

"Why would anyone want information on that? It was all over the news. Chancellor Tular told everyone what happened there. Jedi and bounty hunters and the battle, everything."

"No, there was something else…"

Suddenly a light on the holo-projector started flashing.

"New message." Said Fornia, her face bathed eerily in a soft red glow, every few seconds, from the blinking light on the holo-projector. Fett, reflexively, pressed the play button.

Corellia: Dengar's House

Ellay Ko'alo watched Dengar through the red fuzz of her binoculars, as he moved about the garden of his modest home. He was completely unaware of her presence, she was sure. He was watering his plants.

Ellay felt a sensation she was unused to. Upon reflection, it was… relief. The stories were true, then. Dengar had gone soft. She watched as he lovingly pulled stray leaves off a large, light blue bush. He was as dangerous as a toothless Ewok. Earlier in the day, as she had been piloting her ship to Corellia, she had felt… concerned. She had come across Dengar before, although indirectly, and she knew he was dangerous. He was at Jabba's Palace during her brief employment there. _Imprisonment, you mean_. Ellay rubbed her fingers over the smooth surface of the binoculars. She had pushed those memories away for the last three years. But, during the flight, she had forced herself to relive them. She needed to remember everything she could about Dengar.

And she had. She remembered the way he walked- no, you couldn't call it walking- he _lumbered_ around those dark squalid corridors and passageways, he _dragged_ that hulking armoured form around. His eyes scared her more than his size, though. Empty. Utterly empty. He moved, he talked to an extent, but there was never so much as a spark, a glint, in his eyes. The lights were still on but everyone had left Coruscant, as the other girls used to say. They wouldn't go near him like they would the other hunters. The dancing girls would fawn over famous hunters like Bossk and Boba Fett, but Dengar terrified them. He had ten times the danger and none of the glamour that the other hunters had.

Ellay remembered the horror stories about him. Some awful experimental operation the Empire had carried out on him. He'd had an accident, and to save his life they took away his emotion; the part of his brain that felt pain and pity. He'd kill you without a _first _thought, never mind a second one. They called him 'Payback'.

After she'd left Jabba's Palace - _escaped, you mean _- Ellay hadn't thought much of Dengar. She quickly became out of touch with the whole criminal underworld. When she began her hunting career, she was found almost immediately by Chayni, who wanted a fresh young hunter he could use exclusively. She only had missions and contracts from Chayni, and they were always completely removed from the rest of the bounty hunting fraternity. That was why the news that Dengar and Fett were working together was such a shock. She was totally unaware of anything that had happened in the criminal underworld during in the previous three years. Perhaps that was something to worry about. Would Chayni want someone so inadequate working for him? But no, Chayni knew everything anyway, knowing everything about the world of bounty hunters wasn't her job, Ellay was just a hired gun. Speaking of which, it was time to stop watching Dengar, and start shooting.


	11. Sister and Brother

Corellia: Dengar's House

The galaxy was a big place, but Dengar doubted that anywhere, from the Core to the Outer Rim, would there be a garden to rival his. It was organised beautifully, despite it being rather small. Bushes and shrubs grew up next to the house, while the smaller flowering plants ran alongside the fence, keeping the grass uncluttered, apart from a solitary tree. He lingered by the blue Nubian roses, giving them a bit more attention than the other plants. They'd been looking flaky recently, and that only meant one thing: leaf rot. And that would spread quickly.

Dengar had plants from over sixty different planets in his garden. They all needed different care; plenty of water for the Nubian roses, not much at all for the prickly bush from Utapau. He even had to order special plant food from Ord Mantell for the tree he had from there, that grew pride of place in the centre of the garden. Manaroo introduced him to gardening, of course. She used to tease him that it was his calling; his name was an anagram of 'garden', after all.

Dengar had never had much time for nature before Manaroo. He had always been technologically minded. Even before his swoop bike accident. Dengar smiled to himself at the joke. Technologically minded. Fornia wouldn't like that. Even after ten years, she hadn't got over the accident. Dengar knew that. He didn't regret his youth like Fornia did, though, and neither did he miss it. He was happy now. He loved Manaroo. All he wanted was for his… for other people to be happy too, to move on from the past, like he had. He wondered how Fornia was getting on with Fett. He smiled again, and looked closer at the Nubian rose's petals. It looked a lot like leaf rot. He bent closer to the plant, and felt a sudden rush of heat speed past the top of his head. A blaster bolt.

He threw himself to the floor. All he could think was how to protect Manaroo. She was inside the house. He had to protect her. He didn't stop to think about why he was being shot at, it didn't matter. All he cared about in that moment was to save Manaroo. He rolled himself behind the tree in the middle of the garden. Seconds later leaves fell around him as the tree shook from being hit with another blaster bolt.

"You've got nowhere to run!" Someone shouted at him. A female voice. Dengar had no idea if she had others with her. They might be inside already. He had to stall them. He had to _protect_ Manaroo.

"What do you want?" he shouted back. He felt horribly exposed, crouched ridiculously behind his favourite tree.

"Where is Boba Fett?"

"_What_?!" Dengar shouted out before he could think, so unexpected was the reply he received. Of all the reasons for someone to be shooting at him! What the hell did anyone want with Fett? He was completely off the radar, he was still at Fornia's. Wasn't he?

"Don't play games with me. I know you were with him on Trangor Prime.'

Trangor Prime. That was what this was about? Dengar tried to remember it. He hadn't thought much about the battle since escaping it; he had only been concerned with the aftermath, saving Fett's life again. Before he could say anything, the woman spoke again.

"Tell me where he is and I'll leave you alive. My boss isn't interested in you."

At this, Dengar knew Manaroo was still safe. If his assailant had her, her life would be being used as bargaining leverage for Fett, not his. It also meant that his attacker was probably alone. Small mercies. Still, she had a blaster and he didn't. He'd still have to keep her talking if he was going to escape.

"I don't know where he is." It was lucky for Fett that Manaroo was safe. If it had been a case of giving Fett's whereabouts up to save her life, Dengar knew where his loyalties would lie.

"Like hell you don't." Her voice sounded much closer. Dengar peered round the tree, cautiously. A red haired, green skinned alien woman was striding towards him, her boots landing heavily with each step. She seemed to be trampling on his flowers deliberately. Dengar had a strange feeling that he'd come across a member of her species before, somewhere. She looked like one of those exotic alien types that Jabba used to keep at his palace to lust after.

She had her blaster pointed directly at his face.

"I really didn't want to have to do this the hard way." she said. Her eyes gave her away. There was excitement in them, a hunger. Dengar guessed she was looking forward to being the person who would finally kill him.

"One last time, then, before I get serious. Where is Boba Fett?"

"You really think pointing a blaster at my face is enough to make me tell you?" _Keep her talking_.

"That's not really a sensible question to ask, in your position."

"Oh, no?"

"No."

She shot him, once, in the arm, at the joint of his armour. Dengar howled.

"Where is Boba Fett?"

Dengar grit his teeth. "I'd be more concerned about where Manaroo is, if I were you."

"_What_?" Said the green woman, before being hit heavily around the back of the head. She slumped to the floor, revealing Manaroo, stood behind her, holding Dengar's best shovel.

"You couldn't have done that about five seconds earlier, could you? My arm _really _hurts."

"Old girlfriend, was she?" Said Manaroo. She crouched down beside him to look at his arm.

"Not as far as I know. And I think I'd remember her."

"Hmm. You'll live. I'll get something to dress this." She made to stand up. Dengar put his hand on her arm.

"We need to leave. We're in danger."

Manaroo looked at him, and nodded. "What did she want?" She asked.

"Fett."

"You need to warn Fornia. She's in danger too, then."

_Fornia_. In his panic to ensure Manaroo's safety, he had forgotten about Fornia. If Manaroo had been in danger, he would have sold out Fett in a heartbeat, which meant he would have sold out his sister too. Dengar swallowed.

"I'll holo her."

Coruscant: Fornia's apartment

A new figure appeared on top of the projector, someone who was as unpopular with Fornia as he was with Fett.

"Yeah, it's Han Solo here. Just thought I'd drop you a line, Sub-senator Alorida. You haven't been to work for nearly two weeks. D'you wanna explain that, maybe? Just keep us posted on when you're likely to return, ok?"

The transmission ended. The room suddenly seemed much darker without the blue light of the holo-projector, even though it was not too late in the afternoon.

"Sorry." Said Fett. He was getting used to the word. "I forgot it's your projector. I thought it would be for me again."

Fornia shrugged. She looked like she hadn't heard a word of what Fett had said.

"He's got some nerve." She said abruptly. "I already called in to say I couldn't come to work. He just likes to poke his nose in because he's Corellian. He's really got nothing to do with our department officially." She sounded like she was about to cry. Fett, unaccustomed as he was to understanding other people's emotions, guessed that it was not what Han Solo had said in the message that had upset her so much. He decided that he should probably say something.

"Is it true you haven't been to work for the last two weeks?" He found himself saying. _Nice one, Fett. Really comforting._

"Yeah, well. Neither have you." She smiled wearily. It was too hard not to smile back.

"You told me you were a senator."

"I lied. I thought I should say I was something a bit more impressive than 'sub-senator'. And even that's more impressive than it is. I type, and stuff. For the main Corellian senator." She picked up the holo-projector off the bed and started twirling it idly between her fingers.

"It's not what I wanted to do. You know when you just sort of drift into things? It was easy to get the job. I fought alongside the Corellian senator in the Rebellion. He gave me the job." She watched the spinning holo projector intently as she spoke. Fett didn't know why she was telling him this.

"You were in the Rebel Alliance?"

"Yeah. Not for the politics. I know it's an awful thing to say, but I wasn't really bothered by the Empire. It wasn't that bad on Corellia." She looked up at him, almost shyly.

"The Empire wasn't all bad." Fett was genuinely trying to comfort her. It backfired.

She stared at him, and her eyes were full of ice cold fury.

"Do you know what the Empire did to Dengar?"

"Yes." Said Fett shortly. He'd heard the stories at Jabba's. They'd replaced Dengar's hypothalamus, the part of his brain that felt pain and emotion, with machinery. They had made him the most unfeeling bounty hunter in the galaxy.

"Did you know that that's what made me join the Rebellion? Because they took my brother away? He was the only person I had in the galaxy. And did you know as well that the Empire had a sick sense of humour? Because when I joined the Alliance, they sent Dengar after me, to kill me. And I had to shoot him to stop him. My own brother. And he's fine now, thanks to the miraculous Manaroo, and he's completely happy, and I can't be in the same room as him." She _was _crying now, although silently.

Fett looked out of the window. A Sith Lord had been about to kill him, and he hadn't looked away. But not this. Ships sped past the window, as always, and the buildings opposite twinkled. _Twinkled_?

"I think the power is back." He said stiffly. She looked out of the window.

"I'll have to flip it back on manually." She climbed off the end of the bed. "Wait here."

"Where are you expecting me to go?" He couldn't stop himself.

She grinned at him from the doorway. "Right. That's it. You've had it now." She disappeared, still grinning, still with red eyes from the crying. Fett watched her go, and he felt apprehensive, for many reasons.

A/N: If you've read down this far, you're right next to the review button. Please. I'm needy like that. But seriously. Is Fett coming off as too OOC in this chapter? It's bothering me a bit. Let me know what you think.


	12. “This has been a very weird day”

Coruscant: Fornia's apartment

Fornia made her way downstairs into the living room, the darkness caused by the power cut interrupted every now and then by little patches of light, shining in through the balcony window, skimming their way across the walls and over the surfaces of the room. She weaved her way across to the front door, at the other end of the apartment. The manual power switch that controlled the entire apartment's energy was on the panel next to the door. She flicked the switch, and shielded her eyes as the apartment lit up again.

Squinting slightly as she got used to the light, she made her way into the kitchen and opened up the refrigeration unit. She had to admit it was looking pretty empty. She hadn't been shopping for, well, nearly two weeks. She hadn't even left the apartment, as Han Solo had so kindly reminded her in his message. She couldn't believe he'd actually holo'd her. Did he not remember who she was? She supposed not. Why would he remember her? The race against Dengar hadn't affected the rest of Solo's life like it had hers, and she had been just a face in the crowd of Dengar's supporters that day. And she had looked pretty different back then. Much shorter hair. Much more make-up.

She shut the fridge door and pulled open the cupboard over the sink, scanning it quickly for shareable food. _Aha. Perfect_. Popkron. She jiggled the box from the back of the cupboard and reached inside to get one of the packets, which she dropped into the all-purpose food heater. Popkron was the best she could come up with tonight. She'd have to go and buy some real food tomorrow.

_Now for phase two_. She wasn't going to let Boba Fett be cheeky to her. For his little 'where are you expecting me to go?' remark, he was going to pay. She couldn't quite understand what had prompted him to say something like that. Had it actually been an attempt to cheer her up? More importantly, she couldn't believe that she had actually been crying in front of him. Her earlier memory of Dengar's race had left her feeling… fragile, and then receiving a message from Solo only an hour or so afterwards really hadn't helped. _Anyway. Phase two_. While the popkron popped away in the heater, she walked back into the living room, towards the Holovision projector. She was tired of watching it on her own.

Coruscant: Same time, different place

When Chayni Tular meticulously planned the capture of his two apprentices, he had not foreseen that he would have to deal with this consequence. Blackouts. By the Dark Side, _blackouts_. The first time it happened, just two days ago, it had just been the room he kept the babies in. He had been annoyed that Ellay was away on her mission, because it meant he had had to refit the light-source himself, as none of his attendants could know about the babies. But he had thought nothing else of it. Then, a few hours later, it was the whole apartment. He called one of his attendants to check the apartment's power supply, although he began to suspect it was somehow due to the babies.

Then, yesterday, the whole of Chayni's building went offline, and he decided to notify the Holonews. He told them to say they were routine outages; nothing to be concerned about. And it was a good thing he did, because today all the buildings within three miles of Chayni's apartment had lost their power. It might be the entire planet before long. Who knew?

These children _were_ strong in the Force. They couldn't be much more than a year old. Chayni wondered how many of Skywalker's new Jedi would be able to shut down every building in a three mile radius. Not many at all. Chayni wasn't sure which one of the twins was responsible for the power outages. Maybe it was both of them. They would grow even stronger under his guidance. And, when the time came, one would strike down the other, and become his true apprentice. Chayni felt a thrill at the thought. He never had the chance to strike down Vader. How he regretted that. He smiled down at the girls in their crib, in their sparse little room.

"When the time comes." he said, and left. He needed to check up on Ko'alo. She had left the planet hours ago, and would have reached Corellia by now. She may have even found Fett's whereabouts. Chayni would not allow her to go after Fett, though. He wanted to kill Fett himself, and do a thorough job of it this time. He felt the familiar excitement, the anticipation of murder rise within him, and he gave into the feeling, as a Sith should. Something that one day, he would teach Suli or Zaen to do. He smiled, and sat at his desk, and watched the holo-projector.

Coruscant: Fornia's Apartment

The door slid open again, and Fornia came back in, staggering slightly, due to the strange assortment of objects that she was carrying. In her hands she cradled a large bowl full of… food? Fett wasn't sure what it was, exactly. Tucked under one of her arms was a long rolled-up piece of material, and under the other arm was some kind of shiny device that looked like an oversized holo-projector. She manoeuvred over to the bed and, not too carefully, let the bowl drop onto the end of it, before doing the same with the giant holo-projector, or whatever it was. She turned away. Some of her hair had fallen from where she had loosely tied it back, and she shook it off her face.

She took the rolled up thing from under her arm and pressed the edge of it against the wall directly facing him. She let go and the thing unrolled, sticking itself to the wall as it fell, it seemed. It stayed in place.

"What are you doing?" Fett had remained silent for as long as he could, but he really was at a loss.

"Oh, this is what you get for that comment earlier.' She said, glancing over her shoulder at him, a superior smile on her face.

"What is that? On the wall." Fett found himself struggling to say.

"Holovision screen."

"A Holovision screen?"

"Yep. To go with the Holovision projector." She grabbed the projector up off the bed and turned it on. Instantly the screen on the wall came to life. It seemed to be the news.

"So if you're in the Senate district of Coruscant and you just experienced a loss of power, it's nothing to worry about. We were told by Senate officials earlier today that it was due to routine checks to local power stations. It's possible that more cuts could be on the way over the next few days, too. Stay tuned, headlines coming up after these messages…"

"Aha. I knew it was something like that." Said Fornia. She picked up the bowl of questionable food again and walked round to the other side of the bed, sitting down next to him. She held out the bowl towards him.

"What are you… what is that?"

"Popkron."

"Popkron?"

"Yes, popkron, are you deaf?" She said, shaking the bowl slightly. The popkron rustled in the bowl. "I'm afraid that if you're watching the Holovision, you have to be eating this. Coruscant tradition, or so I'm told."

He continued to stare at her. There was really nothing he could think to say. She rolled her eyes slightly.

"Ok, I have actually run out of real food. I'll have to go shopping tomorrow." She held out the bowl to him again. "It's really the best I can come up with tonight. Sorry."

She gave up on offering the bowl to him, and took a handful of the popkron herself, and turned her head back to watch the screen. He looked at her for a few moments, and turned to face the screen as well.

"I can… pay, or give you some money… for the shopping. You know." He said, not looking at her but staring intently at the flickering screen.

"Yeah, I know. But don't worry about it."

He turned to her again.

"Look…" He began. She looked at him, an eyebrow raised.

"Will you shut up? I told you, I want to watch something." She said, changing the channel on the projector, and looking back at the screen. Fett took a handful of popkron, and did the same.

Corellia: A few hours later 

Ellay Ko'alo stumbled up the landing ramp and through the airlock, back onto her ship, holding the back of her head. She had no idea how long she had been unconscious for. When she came to, lying face down on the damp grass of Dengar's garden, night had already fallen, and she knew that Dengar and his… accomplice, whoever it was who had knocked her out, would have left the planet hours ago. Manaroo, had he said? 'Watch out for Manaroo', she was sure Dengar had said that just before she had been knocked out. Ellay only had herself to blame for being caught off-guard like that. She hadn't thought to check the house. She had just seen Dengar in the garden, alone and vulnerable. She hadn't imagined anyone would be inside.

Anyway, despite knowing that Dengar and this Manaroo would be long gone hadn't stopped Ellay breaking into their house and searching it, room by room, in the vain hope that they were still there. She had no choice. She had to have something to report back to Chayni, after coming all this way, after being so close to finding Fett. She had had Dengar at her mercy, and he'd escaped without telling her anything. If she went back to Chayni empty-handed, he would kill her. It was that simple.

So she had ransacked the house, hoping for some small clue that could still lead her to Fett. The rooms were fairly empty, apart from a few useless things here and there; furniture, the Holovision, the cutlery in the kitchen. She clearly had been unconscious long enough for Dengar and Manaroo to take most of what they needed. She had hoped, foolishly, to find their holo-projector, but if Dengar had one, he'd taken it with him, along with all the food in the refrigeration unit. Ellay had been hungry enough to look.

She had found something to lift her spirits very slightly, however; in the bottom of a box, at the back of the wardrobe in Dengar's bedroom, she had crouched down to find a few scattered holograph disks, which she could view on her ship. It was a very long shot, but they might just provide some clue to Fett's whereabouts, or where Dengar would have gone. She had put them in her thigh pocket, and left the house, heading back unsteadily towards her ship.

Now, sitting at the cockpit controls, she slotted the first holograph disk into a projector on the control panel, hoping somehow it could be relevant to her search for Fett. But no luck. All that came up on the projector was an image of a young man standing proudly next to a swoop-bike, a helmet tucked under his arm. Ellay looked closer at the holograph. It was Dengar, a much younger Dengar. His face was scar free, completely untroubled. It must have been taken before his accident. Ellay's gaze lingered on the young Dengar's face, under thick brown hair, before ejecting the holograph and inserting the next one. It was Dengar and his bike again, but this time he was joined in the picture by a human female; a pretty girl with short dark hair and a lot of make-up. Perhaps this was Manaroo? The remaining holographs were just more images of Dengar and this girl, whoever she was. A few holographs of them smiling, the next one of them pouting shamelessly at the holocam. The last one was of the girl sitting on Dengar's bike, grinning up at him, while Dengar tried to fit a helmet onto her head, laughing. Ellay ejected the holograph and flung it to the floor.

"Useless!" She shouted hoarsely. "How is this supposed to help me find Fett?"

She slumped forwards across the control panel. It was time to tell Chayni what had happened. She'd better do this face to face. She pressed the button on her holo-projector to send a live message. Chayni answered immediately, an image of his face appearing on top of the projector. Ellay knew he must have been waiting for her to call. She cleared her throat.

"Chancellor, I found Dengar..."

"Do you have Fett's location?" Chayni said abruptly.

"N-no, Chancellor. Dengar escaped before I could extract it from him."

There was a horrific pause.

"How is that possible?"

"Dengar had an accomplice, a woman. I didn't think he would." Ellay's mouth was so completely dry, it had been difficult to reply.

"Was there nothing he said, nothing you saw that could lead you to Fett?"

"No, Chancellor. I searched his house after he escaped. There was nothing."

Chayni said nothing for a long while.

"You will return to Coruscant immediately. Do not think I will forget this, Ko'alo."

"I'm so sorry, Chancellor-"

But he'd already gone. Ellay switched the holo-projector off. She felt sick.

Coruscant: Fornia's apartment. 

Same time

Fornia had fallen asleep. Her head was drooping, getting dangerously closer and closer to Boba Fett's shoulder. He gingerly nudged her away, and carried on flicking through the channels on the Holovision. There were a lot of them. He flicked past, amongst other things, a high speed pod-race, what looked like a nature documentary about wild tauntauns on Hoth, and a Twi'lek reporter interviewing people at a holofilm premiere. Fett kept going through the channels, looking for the news channel that had been on earlier. He wanted to see if there was anything on Trangor Prime.

Fornia had told him that it had been all over the news, but from what she had said it didn't sound like anyone had mentioned the Sith. Fett couldn't understand that. Surely Skywalker would have told the Senate, or at least the Supreme Chancellor. Why wasn't it on the news?

And there was still that strange bird woman's message. _She_ wanted to know about Trangor Prime. Why would she want to know about it if had been all over the news? Unless she already knew the news wasn't telling the full story... Fett ran a hand through his hair. There was something he was missing. None of this made sense. The Holonews studio came on the screen, and he stopped flicking the channels.

It was just something about the power cuts again. Fornia's head slumped onto his shoulder, making him jump, and he pushed her away again. He should wake her up. It was getting late. Suddenly there was a beeping noise. It seemed to be coming from the floor. Fett looked down over the side of the bed. It was the holo-projector. He leaned down carefully and picked it up. Moving didn't hurt as much as it had earlier. He should try standing up again. But not now.

He shook Fornia's shoulder with his other hand.

"Fornia."

"What." She said, still asleep.

"Fornia. Your holo-projector."

Her eyes opened, slowly. She gazed at him for a moment. She looked confused.

"You've got a message." He held out the projector.

"Oh. Ok." She still sounded half asleep. She reached out and pressed a button on the projector. Dengar's face appeared on top of the device.

"Fornia, are you there?"

She sat up instantly, snatching the projector off Fett.

"What? What's wrong?" She rubbed her eyes with her free hand.

"You're in danger, you and Fett..." Dengar's eyes flicked towards Fett, sitting next to her, and he did a slight double take. "What are you...doing? Together?" He said.

"Watching Holovision." Fett replied calmly. "What's going on?"

Dengar's eyes flicked between them once more, before he spoke again.

"A woman came to my house today, looking for you, Fett. Some green alien, I don't know what species she was. Looked like a giant bird."

Fornia and Fett's eyes met, briefly.

"Anyway," Dengar continued, "she wasn't very friendly. She was bit trigger happy, actually."

"Are you ok?" Fornia said quickly. Fett noticed her hands were clenched on her lap.

"I'm fine. Nothing serious, really. Just got shot."

Fornia gasped.

"What did she want with me?" Fett asked, although he had a feeling he already knew the answer.

"She said it was about Trangor Prime."

Fornia looked at Fett again, her eyebrows raised. Fett nodded slightly.

"Dengar, stay there. I'm going to send you a message I received earlier. Tell me if the woman in it is the one who attacked you." Fett cut the connection.

"How do we send him that message?" He said, turning to Fornia.

"Let me." She said. She pressed a series of buttons on the projector. "Ok, done. What is going on?" She asked. Her eyes were very wide.

Before Fett could answer her, the holo-projector started beeping again. He pressed the answer button immediately. Dengar's face appeared once more.

"Yeah, that was her."

"What the hell is going-" Fornia began, but Fett interrupted.

"Dengar, what exactly happened?" He noticed Fornia looking at him, annoyed at his interruption. "Sorry." He said. Neither of them noticed Dengar smirking.

"Ok, I was in the garden," he began, "and someone starting shooting at me. It was that green alien woman. She asked where you were. I said I didn't know. She said she knew we were working together on Trangor Prime. Then Manaroo knocked her out. With a shovel."

"Nice one." Fornia laughed.

"Yeah. So anyway, me and Manaroo got off-world as soon as we could. We left her on the lawn."

"Is there anything in your house that could lead her here?" Said Fett, thinking that Dengar really should have killed the woman, just to be safe. But he didn't say that in front of Fornia.

"I don't think so. We brought most of it with us. The holo-projector and everything. Look, should we come to Coruscant? Safety in numbers."

"No!" Said Fornia and Fett, simultaneously. They glanced at each other.

"If she's tracking you, Dengar, you'll lead her straight here. Just... keep out of sight for a while." Said Fett.

"And don't call unless it's absolutely necessary." Said Fornia. "Unless something else happens."

"Alright. Over and out." Dengar cut the connection.

Fornia leaned back, resting against the wall. She pressed her hand to her forehead.

"You were going to tell me something about Trangor Prime earlier. Before Han Solo messaged me. That made me forget." She said.

"There was a Sith on Trangor Prime." He said. She looked at him, her mouth open.

"_What_?"

"There was a Sith. That's how I got injured."

Fornia just stared at him.

"_Please_ tell me what's going on. My brother got shot today. I want to know why."

Fett looked at her. He took a breath, and told her everything. Right from the start. About the bounty, about the battle, how he had followed Skywalker and his friends to the temple in the city, where they had found the Sith, right up to Dengar blowing up the temple to rescue him.

"So Luke Skywalker knows about the Sith as well?" Fornia said, after a while.

"Yes. Would he have told the Chancellor?"

"Oh, definitely. But I suppose they won't have told the Senate. They won't want to cause a panic. You know, I _knew_ there was something funny about Trangor Prime. Chayni Tular told the senate that the bounty hunters were all going to Trangor Prime to start a war."

"That's ridiculous." Fett said shortly. "Bounty hunters don't work together like that."

"That is exactly what I thought! But most of the people in the senate accepted that without question. None of the senators really understand the criminal underworld."

"And you do?" Fett said, looking at her.

"Yeah, I do." She replied, an eyebrow raised. "Me and Dengar used to be involved with all that on Corellia. Back when he used to race swoop-bikes. But anyway, I don't understand what that green bird woman has to do with all this. Why is she trying to track you down?"

"She must work for the Sith. I don't think I was supposed to find out about the Sith on Trangor Prime. I could expose them."

"Yeah, but Skywalker knows too. Is he being hunted down by some mad green alien as well, do you think?"

"I don't know. None of this makes any sense."

Silence fell between them.

"Was it only this morning that you tried to stand up and fell over?" Fornia said, after a while.

"Yes."

"This has been a very weird day." She stood up. "I'm going to bed. Do you want anything specific when I go shopping tomorrow?"

"No. Nothing. Thanks."

She looked at him from the doorway.

"Goodnight." She said.

"Goodnight." He replied.

She left, and the door slid shut behind her.


	13. Downstairs

Coruscant: Fornia's apartment

The next day

Boba Fett woke abruptly. The room was filled with sunlight. He sat upright, and kicked off the bed sheets. Taking a deep breath, he stood up. And... nothing. No dizziness.

He leant against the wall, next to the window. The muscles in his legs were quite stiff, and he still felt a little unsteady, but at least he was standing up. He didn't know why he felt so much better today. Maybe it was the popkron. He gazed at the traffic through the window. It didn't look too busy, by Coruscant standards, at least. It must be around mid-morning. He wondered if Fornia had left yet. He made his way towards the door, and stepped outside the bedroom for the first time in ten days.

He found himself standing on a dark upstairs landing. To his left, at the other end of the landing, were two more doors. Directly in front of him was a staircase. He walked, his hand pressed against the wall, down the length of the landing towards the other doorways. Behind the first door was another bedroom. It was quite bare compared to the room he had been in for the past ten days. Just plain white walls and a small window. And a bed, which was unmade. That, and the clothes scattered on the floor, told him this was where Fornia had been sleeping. He left the room, and went through the other door, which lead to a small bathroom. A face looked back at him from the other side of the room. He suddenly realised it was his own; it was his reflection in the mirror above the sink. He looked pale, and he had ten day's worth of stubble. His hair was longer. His face looked thin. He frowned, and stepped back out onto the landing, and went downstairs.

The stairs lead down so that when he reached the bottom, Fett was facing the back wall of the apartment. He could see a narrow balcony through a large sliding glass door. He stepped away from the stairs, and surveyed the room. The whole of the downstairs area just seemed to be one big room. One big messy room. There were used plates and cups everywhere, on the floor, on the arms of the sofa, even over on a small dining table in the opposite corner of the room. He saw even more discarded clothes draped over the back of the sofa.

He moved across the room, stepping over the plates on the floor and a solitary abandoned shoe. He noticed the blank space on the wall facing the sofa. Presumably where the Holovision normally lived. He saw, at the other end of the staircase, the kitchen, visible through an open archway. Predictably, it was in the same condition as the rest of the apartment.

Fett reached the other side of the room. He leaned against a set of metal shelves, resting his weight against them for a moment. They were not as sturdy as he thought. They swayed violently and something fell off, clattering to the floor. He bent down, cautiously, and picked it up. It was a framed holograph. A smiling girl on a swoop-bike, and a laughing boy putting a helmet on her head. It was Fornia and Dengar. The holograph must have been taken years ago. Fornia's hair was much shorter. She had pink and yellow stripes of glitter on her face, and a row of small black dots under each eye. Fett stared at the picture.

After a while, he noticed how cold the floor was on his bare feet. He should go down to the Slave I and get a change of clothes. And a razor. He carefully replaced the holograph on the shelf.

He began to walk towards the front door, when there was a loud thudding noise from the other side of it, and Fett saw a silhouette appear in the frosted glass window at the top of the door. The green assassin. She had found him somehow. He flattened himself against the wall next to the door. He had no weapons. But, he did have the element of surprise. He waited for the door to open, calmly.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the door, Fornia had frozen. She had dropped one of the bags of shopping to free her hand, so she could type the security code in to open the door, when she had seen a shadow flit past on the other side, through the glass. It was the green bird woman who had attacked Dengar yesterday. It had to be. Fornia quickly fumbled through the shopping bags to find a makeshift weapon, anything. There was nothing. So she clenched her fists, and opened the door.

Instantly she was slammed against the wall, her arms pinned to her sides. Her face was pressed against the wall, so she couldn't see her attacker. She screamed. Suddenly her arms were released.

"Fornia!"

She turned around, to see Boba Fett about an inch away from her nose. She pushed him away.

"What did you do that for!?" She said, breathing deeply.

"I thought you were the alien. From the message."

"I thought _you_ were." She started to laugh slightly. She suddenly looked at him. "Oh... you're up! You're downstairs!"

"Yes. Are you alright?"

"Yes." She said quickly, rubbing her arms nonetheless. "I got some food." She stepped back through the open doorway and picked up the shopping bags. Fett followed her outside.

"Where's my ship?"

She looked up at him.

"Are you leaving?" She said.

"No. No, I wanted to get... a few things." He replied, evasively.

"Oh. Right. I just thought, because you're walking and everything. I would have been very annoyed." She was blushing. "I just bought all this food, you know."

Fett leaned back against the wall next to the front door. Fornia remembered he'd asked her a question.

"Oh, sorry. Yeah. It's on the tenth landing platform. In the corner. That way." She pointed down to the end of the walkway. Fett immediately set off. She didn't watch him go, but instead carried the shopping bags through the open door and round into the kitchen. She started to unpack the food into the refrigeration unit. Her face felt hot.

Landing platform 10: Slave I

The entry hatch slid open, and Boba Fett stepped onboard his ship. He quickly glanced around at the familiar cold silver surfaces, the raised cockpit ahead of him and the prisoner cages to his left. It was exactly as he had left it; Fornia apparently hadn't been tempted to touch or move anything when she'd visited it yesterday to retrieve his message.

He pulled himself up onto the bunk that was positioned immediately above the entrance hatch. It seemed strangely uncomfortable after Fornia's bed. He opened up the storage hatch at the end of the bed; there were some old clothes he kept in there to wear on the Slave I, when he was alone. Sometimes his armour was impractical for carrying out maintenance work on the ship. And for sleeping in. But he'd never worn the clothes outside of the Slave I before. He really had to change out of the jumpsuit, though. And somehow, for reasons he did not want to examine too closely, it would feel... strange putting his armour back on just to wear inside Fornia's apartment.

He jumped down off the bunk without thinking. There was a burst of pain in his leg, and he remembered how only yesterday he couldn't even stand up. He leaned against the cool metal panels of the wall. He still needed to rest. For one more day, at least. He left the ship. Moments later, the entry hatch slid back up, and Fett stalked back onboard. He briefly rummaged around for a razor, and left again. The hatch closed behind him with a precise thud.

Coruscant: Same time, different place

Ellay Ko'alo continued to massage her throat. She knew there would be no bruises, no visible marks to show what Chayni Tular had done to her when she had arrived back on Coruscant. She almost wished there were.

Suli began to cry in the crib beside her, and Ellay picked her up, holding her close. Chayni had forbidden her to do this, but she needed to. She had to have some kind of contact from another being. Suli's tiny fingers wrapped around the shoulder strap of Ellay's vest, and the bounty hunter felt a dizzying surge of pity for the infant. She would grow up to kill her sister, or be killed by her. When she was older, if she survived, would Chayni send her on missions? And would he then punish her, like he had punished Ellay, if she failed? Suli fell silent, and Ellay reluctantly laid her back down in the crib, next to her sleeping twin.

Ellay gazed down at them, leaning against the wall. She wondered how long she had left with them. Chayni had forbidden her to leave the apartment. She knew it was only a matter of time before he killed her. She didn't know why he hadn't done it already, why he hadn't done it as soon as she returned to him. He must enjoy letting her live in fear. Suli yawned in the crib. Ellay let herself gradually slide down the wall, until she was sitting on the floor.

Coruscant: Fornia's apartment

There was a sharp knock on the front door. Fornia jumped up, and hurried out of the kitchen. She knew it would be Fett. Of course it would be. But she couldn't help feeling on edge. She reached the door, and hesitated. She was just about to call out 'who's there?' when Fett's voice came from the other side of the door.

"It's me." He said quietly, sounding completely unruffled, as usual. She pressed a button on the panel next to the door, and it slid across. Fett stepped inside.

"Hi." Said Fornia. "Did you find it?"

"Yes. Can I use your bathroom?" He said.

"Uh, ok." She replied, bemused. "You don't have to ask. You've been in my bed for the past ten days."

"Right." He went upstairs. Fornia stepped back into the kitchen, smiling slightly.

Upstairs, in the bathroom, Boba Fett kept his eyes concentrated on the water swirling into the basin. He wasn't used to seeing his reflection. It had caught him by surprise before. Had his face really become that thin? He raised his head, warily, as if he expected a stranger to be staring back at him in the mirror. And there almost was. Same brown eyes, same black hair, although longer than usual, but his face looked as pale and thin as it had before. He traced an old white scar above his eyebrow with a fingertip. He dipped the razor into the now full basin and began to shave.

It used to bother him, when he was younger, that he didn't look exactly the same as his father. He was leaner, wirier. He had lived a different life, and it showed. He finished shaving, and dried his face. He turned away from the mirror, and his gaze fell on the shower unit in the corner. One of those wouldn't be a bad idea, either.


	14. Coruscant in Darkness

Coruscant: Fornia's apartment

Boba Fett came down the stairs, quietly. Fornia, who had been lying upside-down on the sofa, scrambled back upright. She hadn't heard him coming at all.

"You ok?" she said breathlessly. Her hair had fallen loose, feathering down over her shoulders. He nodded, and walked over to stand next to the sofa. She stood up hastily, glancing at him. He looked different. He'd shaved. His hair looked slightly damp and he'd changed his clothes. A plain black top and grey combat trousers. Fornia realised she was staring and quickly looked away, glancing around the apartment, looking anywhere else.

"Sorry. About the mess in here." She said, feeling awkward. Fett shrugged slightly. She ruffled the back of her hair with her hand, and suddenly began to pick up plates, stacking them up haphazardly in her arms.

"So, what are you going to do now? I mean, now you're back on your feet?" She said, clumsily scooping up another plate from further along the sofa. Fett folded his arms, looking out through the balcony window.

"I should leave soon. Like you said."

She turned suddenly back to face him. One of the plates slipped from her arms and clattered to the floor between them. They both crouched down for it. Fett picked it up first.

"You don't have to." She said, losing her balance a little and grasping the plates closer. "I mean, isn't it dangerous out there, with a Sith looking for you?"

"It's dangerous for me to stay here, in one place. And for you." He added, placing the plate carefully on top of the others. They both stood up.

"It's not. Trust me; no-one really knows I'm Dengar's sister anymore. I mean, no-one remembers. You saw yesterday, even Han Solo doesn't. That bird woman won't find out where you are. And don't worry about me anyway, I can look after myself. I am a war veteran, you know."

_You couldn't look after yourself when you came in earlier_, Fett thought, but he didn't say it. Instead, he asked "Do you have a blaster here?"

"No." She said, sheepishly. "Well then, I _would_ be in danger if you go. You've got every kind of gun in the galaxy, haven't you?" She grinned. Fett, as usual, fought the urge to smile back.

"Right."

She walked across into the kitchen and started to slot the plates into the washer. She glanced over at him.

"So you're staying then?"

"I wasn't going to leave today, anyway." He said, honestly.

"Oh. Right." She came back into the living room. They stood in silence for a moment. Fornia looked down, examining her boots. She looked back up again. "I can't believe you're down here. You couldn't even stand up yesterday morning."

Fett said nothing.

"Maybe it was the healing power of Holovision." She smiled, and stretched her arms above her head, briefly. "Oh, I should bring that back down here." She started walking towards the stairs. "Does this mean I can have my room back, by the way?" She said, over her shoulder.

He stared after her.

"That's my room you've been in, you know. I'll never forgive Dengar." She carried on upstairs. Fett watched her go, and then began to collect the plates that she had missed.

Dagobah

Lizards crept purposefully along the rocks that surrounded the cave, their huge eyes leering through the gloom. Damp grey moss covered everything, and strange trees wound themselves in and around the stony walls, roots splitting rock. White mist swirled around Luke Skywalker's boots, giving them a faint sheen of moisture. Luke did not notice. His eyes were wide open, staring, but it was not the cave he saw.

He was in a world of cold silence, high in the upper atmosphere, looking out across Coruscant. The planet had not been immediately recognisable. It was in almost total darkness, the buildings that loomed out of the night were distorted; twisted shadows. Pinpricks of light came from the endless stream of speeders and ships, but they were only tiny fleeting sparks, like fireflies in a vast night. The vision began to change; Luke was now hurtling down from the sky to the level of the buildings, heading towards one of the smaller skyscrapers. Luke let himself be taken down with the vision, though he was still unable to hear anything.

He was looking down on a balcony. Two humans sat at opposite ends, a man and a woman, facing each other through the darkness. They both had dark hair, but the woman was paler; her skin shone white through the darkness. Luke felt he knew them, but could not immediately recognise either of their faces. Now they were both standing up, leaning on the edge of the balcony, looking out over the blackness of the city. He could not hear what they were saying, but Luke felt, intuitively, they were fighting with each other. The vision began to change again. Luke was speeding away from the pair on the balcony, around the side of their building.

The Senate building appeared through the darkness. He was hurtling towards it, faster, and faster until he was about to collide with it, and then-

Luke pitched forwards, his face smacking against the cold rocky ground. He stood up, cautiously, wiping flecks of moss and sweat from his face, and retreated from the cave.

Coruscant: Fornia's apartment

Fett heard Fornia's footsteps on the stairs. He was in the kitchen area, stacking plates. The sound of her footsteps stopped at the bottom of the stairs.

"Oh, wow." He heard her say distinctly. He stopped sorting the plates and went into the main room of the apartment. Fornia was standing at the bottom of the stairs, as he had thought she would be, holding the Holovision projector and the rolled-up screen, surveying the room. She caught sight of him and grinned.

"You didn't have to tidy up in here."

Fett shrugged. All he had done was put the rest of the plates into the kitchen. Although, he had to admit, the room did look tidier because of it.

Fornia walked across to the wall facing the sofa and went through the process of sticking the Holovision screen to the wall, as she had done the previous night. Fett noticed she too had changed her clothes. Instead of the purple outfit she had arrived back from shopping in she now wore a dark blue catsuit. It was cut rather low at the back. He decided not to comment.

Fornia finished sticking the Holovision to the empty space on the wall and turned around to face him.

"So, uh," she half smiled and shrugged, "I guess we'd better stay inside. Out of sight of any passing green alien assassins." She ran her hands through her hair, ruffling the back of it slightly. "There's plenty to do, I suppose. There's the Holovision. And also if you want to check anything on the Holonet, no problem." She folded her arms across her chest, and then immediately unfolded them to ruffle her hair again.

"Thanks." Said Fett. They stood in silence facing each other; he leaning against the archway of the kitchen, she still stood in front of the Holovision.

Fett glanced over his shoulder at the pile of plates that remained on the side in the kitchen. Fornia immediately misunderstood the gesture.

"Oh, right! Food." She said, her eyes widening. "Sorry. We haven't eaten since the popkron." She laughed slightly. "Wow. Sorry."

She walked over to the kitchen, towards him. "What, uh, what do you want? To eat?"

He shrugged. "Anything" Although his glance into the kitchen had not been a request for food, now she mentioned it food would not be unwelcome. She grinned at him.

"Even popkron?"

He half smiled.

"No."

Dagobah

Luke stepped out of the cave, and stopped, staring at the shimmering figure that stood in front of him.

"Well?" said Obi-Wan Kenobi.

"Ben! Am I glad to see you." Luke walked over, standing next to the spirit of his old mentor. "I need your help. A Sith has returned. I fought him... _it_, on Trangor Prime, and I got beaten... boy, was I beaten. And now I have no idea where to look; how to find it."

"We'll come to that in a moment." Obi-Wan said patiently. "More important than that is what you saw in the cave." He put his hands on his hips. "Tell me."

"I saw a lot of things that I don't understand." Luke said, sighing. "I saw Coruscant, but it was in complete darkness. Then two people on a balcony. A man and a woman. It was strange, I felt like I knew them, like I half-recognised them."

Obi-Wan said nothing, but sat down slowly on a rocky outcrop, casting his strange blue glow through the shadows of the swamp. Luke remained standing.

"And then, I saw the Senate. I was speeding towards it. I was about to crash into the side of it before the vision ended." Luke folded his arms, gazing hard at the misty white vapours covering the ground. "I feel like... I can't see the whole picture; the whole of whatever is going on here. There are pieces missing. I meditated for days on Coruscant, but nothing became clearer. No clue of this Sith's whereabouts came to me. I thought it might help to come back here." He sighed again. "Back to where I learned everything."

"You were right, of course." Said Obi-Wan calmly. "It is sometimes difficult to sense things on the capital. There is too much activity for one to properly quieten the mind."

"What does the vision mean, Ben?" said Luke, sitting down next to the Jedi Master.

"What do you think it means?"

"Well... I suppose it means that I should return to Coruscant. That seems obvious. But going back and waiting there won't help me find the Sith."

"Sometimes, the answer to a problem is only found when we are not looking for it, but when we wait for it to come to us. Patience." Said Obi-Wan simply. Luke continued to gaze into the mist.

"How could there even be a Sith? The Emperor and Vader were the last, weren't they?"

Obi-Wan did not answer immediately. He seemed to be considering his words carefully. "Yoda always said that there were only ever two Sith; the Master and the Apprentice. But the Emperor... he was shrewd. He would have bent the rules as he saw fit, I think. It is not too difficult to imagine he would train more than one apprentice, in secret."

"Well, if that's true, he trained him well. He beat me. Easily." Luke looked up. "If I _do_ find this Sith again, I don't know if I can defeat him, Ben."

"You have become a great Jedi, Luke, as I knew you would." Obi-Wan smiled. "But, when one is great, it does not mean we no longer need help."

"I know. But I don't want to put anyone else in danger. Han and Leia could have been killed on Trangor Prime by this Sith, and the new Jedi are still so inexperienced."

"Maybe it is not their help you need."

"Whose help do I need, then?" Mused Luke. Obi-Wan looked at him.

"What about the pair you saw in your vision?"

"What, the people from the balcony?" Said Luke. "I don't even know who they are."

"You saw them for a reason, Luke. They may know something. They can help you in some way."

"I think... you're right." Luke stood up.

"What are you going to do?" Obi-Wan asked, smiling slightly.

"I'm going back to Coruscant, to the Senate. And I'm going to wait there for help."

"May the Force be with you." Said Obi-Wan. He was fading into the mist. Luke's eyes lingered upon the empty space where his mentor had been, before he turned away, to begin the trek back to his ship.

Coruscant: Chayni Tular's apartment

A few hours later

The lights flickered, briefly plunging the room into total darkness. It was only the sudden blackness that made Ellay look up, bringing her out of a deep reverie. She must have been sitting there, leaning against the wall, for hours. The twins hadn't made a noise the whole time.

They were making noise now, Ellay realised. She could hear a soft whimpering from the crib, which suddenly escalated into a full bodied scream. The lights went off again, and then flashed back on. Ellay stood up, her legs and back sore from sitting on the hard floor for so long. She looked into the crib.

Zaen, the fair-haired twin, was screaming, her small face contorted with the force of her voice. Ellay had never seen Zaen cry like that before. In fact, she had never seen the infant cry at all; it was always her sister who needed attention. The scream grew higher, agonizingly, and the room was again plunged into darkness for a moment, before the lights struggled back on.

Then Suli began to wail too, her voice mingling with Zaen's. Their joint screams grew louder and even higher, and the lights started to flash on and off at an alarming speed. Ellay stared in horror at the babies. She wanted to comfort them, but she could not take her hands from over her ears. Their screams continued, reaching a fantastic height, until the room was finally plunged into complete darkness. The girls' screams died away.

Ellay groped her way over to the switch panel on the wall, jamming her finger into every button in the hope that the lights would return. Nothing. Guiding herself by following the wall, she found her way to the door and left the room.

The rest of the apartment was in a half light. It was not as late in the day as Ellay had thought; only the girls' room was in total darkness because there was no window. There was no power in any of the other rooms, though. In the main room of the apartment, Ellay gazed through the huge panels of glass that looked out across the skyline. Apart from the flickering streams of speeders, everything was darkened. Not one light shone from any of the buildings, as far as she could see. Ellay caught her breath. What the hell were these children capable of?

Coruscant: Fornia's apartment

Fornia sat cross-legged on the sofa. The Holovision was on, and she was trying very hard to watch it, but Boba Fett was distracting her. She could just see him through the open balcony doors. He was leaning against the edge of the balcony, looking out across the city. He had been standing in that exact same place for what must have been an hour. Fornia forced herself to look back at the screen on the wall.

She managed to keep looking at the screen for at least another minute, before her eyes flicked back to the unmoving figure on the balcony. She sighed to herself, and stood up. She stepped out onto the balcony. Fett appeared not to have noticed her. He was concentrating intently on the buildings opposite.

"I give up." She said, resting a hand on her hip.

"What?" He half turned his head towards her.

"What are you doing? You've been out here for ages."

"Locating-" He paused, and turned to look at her properly. "Locating your building's whereabouts."

"Locating... you mean you didn't know where the building was?" She grinned, and he frowned.

"Not precisely."

"Right. Do you know now? Precisely?"

"I have a fair idea." He said, looking back at the buildings. She smiled to herself. She could hear the low murmur of the Holovision inside the apartment, and she stepped towards the balcony doorway to go back and turn it off. She had placed one foot inside when the room fell into a half light, and the Holovision fell silent.

"Oh, not again." She sighed. "The power's gone again-" She started to say, when Fett interrupted her.

"Fornia. Look."

She turned around, and gasped.

In a perfect flowing sequence, the buildings opposite were all falling into darkness, one after another. It looked like a great tide was washing over them, putting out all the lights completely. But what made Fornia gasp was the fact that the tide of darkness did not stop after a few buildings, like it had last time. It kept going, and going, and going, as far as they could see. They both leaned over the edge of the balcony, craning their necks to watch building after building lose its power.

Fornia turned to look at Fett. She was biting her lower lip. "This can't be... I mean, I don't think this is a normal power cut."

He nodded.

"What's going on?"

Fett looked at her for a moment. "I don't know." He abruptly turned away and strode back into the darkened apartment. She followed him. He headed into the kitchen and peered through the window in there, looking at the buildings on the other side of theirs. They were in darkness too.

"How far do you think this goes?" Fornia said anxiously. "Do you think it could be... I don't know, the entire planet?"

"I don't know." He said again.

Fornia leant back against the wall, hugging her arms around herself. "What do you think we should do? And please don't say 'I don't know' again." She said, managing a half smile. He tilted his head to the side slightly.

"I wasn't. We could go down to my ship." He looked out of the window again. "It has its own power supply."

"We can't do that." Fornia said quickly.

"Why?" Fett said, frowning slightly at her.

"No power in the building means no power in the elevators." She raised an eyebrow. "Unless you want to fly down to the tenth landing platform."

"That would be... unwise." He smiled. Briefly.

"I guess we're stuck in here, then." Fornia said.

Fett nodded. He leant back against the wall next to the window. Fornia ruffled her hair again. They stared at each other through the half light.


	15. The Balcony

Coruscant: Fornia's apartment

A few hours later

Fornia paused, thinking.

"Ok, no, I've got a good one now." She said, after a moment. "What is... what is the scariest thing you've ever done?"

They were sitting on the floor at opposite ends of the balcony, facing each other. Night had fallen, and it had become too dark to see anything inside the apartment. Even the auxiliary power was out.

"What do you mean, 'scariest'?"

"What do you mean, 'what do I mean?'" She laughed. "Something that scared you."

He considered.

"I can't think of anythi-"

"Oh, alright!" She grinned. "Something that would scare a _normal_ person, then."

He might have smiled, but it was too dark for Fornia to see.

"I had a fight with Darth Vader once." He said.

Fornia's mouth hung open. "An actual fight? Who won?"

He was silent for a moment. "It was a draw."

"Wow. But what about, you know, the Sarlacc?"

He cocked his head to one side. "How do you-"

"Rebels gossip." She said, her teeth glinting in the dark as she smiled.

"That wasn't... scary." He said, coolly.

"Oh, come on." She was laughing.

"I do have a jet-pack. It wasn't difficult to get back out."

"If you say so." She was still laughing, slightly.

He looked across at her through the darkness. "What about you?" He said, after a pause.

"Oh, I have no idea. There's too many. Once, on Corellia, me and Dengar went to sabotage one of his rival's bikes," she grinned mischievously, "and we got caught. By this gang of Trandoshan security guards. We escaped. Just. I have never run so fast. But there's other stuff. From the Rebellion. But... yeah." She trailed off.

"What did you do in the Rebellion?" He asked. She looked up, taken aback.

"Nothing that I'm too proud of." She said quietly, and before he could say anything in return she quickly added; "I was a pilot."

In the dark she thought she saw him raise his eyebrows slightly.

"I'm a fair flyer, you know. Dengar used to let me ride his swoop bike, back on Corellia. That was good training."

"What ships did you fly?" He said.

"A few." She replied, still slightly taken aback by his interest in the matter. "I was co-pilot in a Y-Wing at first, and then they let me have an X-Wing, towards the end. I mean, I wasn't in any of the important battles." She said with a strange smile. "But I had my share."

She hugged her legs toward her chest. "I hated that Y-Wing. Piece of junk. It was the worst thing I ever flew. It never turned where you wanted it to. It was just so heavy, you know? You always had to be planning about ten turns in advance before you could get out of the hangar."

"Those fighters had a lot of firepower, though." He said.

"Good for them. I'd rather have my nice speedy X-Wing any day." She smiled.

"Why did they let you have an X-Wing?"

"What are you implying?" She laughed.

"I was under the impression that the Rebel Alliance had more Y-Wings to spare than X-Wings."

"Well, we had one less Y-Wing when my co-pilot got killed, so I got bumped up." She said bluntly. He said nothing.

"What are you so interested for, anyway? I thought you were on the other side."

"I wasn't on anybody's side." He said shortly. "But, if a side could afford me..." He shrugged his shoulders slightly. Their eyes met, and Fornia felt a slight shiver of what could have been fear, but wasn't. Neither of them looked away.

"Were... uh, you were at Dengar's wedding, weren't you?" She said, after a long moment. She finally looked away from him, choosing to stare instead at her bare feet.

"Yes."

"I know you were. Best man, right?" Her eyes flicked back up to his.

He nodded.

"I should have been there." She half shrugged, and looked at her feet again. "These last couple of weeks might have been slightly less awkward for us then." She smiled briefly, and then grew serious. "I, uh, I wasn't ready to see him then. I mean... I told you what happened between us. In the Rebellion."

.

"You did. Briefly."

"You don't want to hear the details, trust me. That's no story for a ro-... well, a dark night." She corrected herself. It was a mild evening, but she could feel how hot her face had grown at what she had almost said. She hoped it was too dark for him to see, but just to make sure he didn't she turned her face up towards the sky. For the first time she noticed how clear the night was, and just how many stars were out.

"Wow." She scrambled up to her feet and leant on the balcony rail, still looking up at the sky. "I've never seen so many stars over Coruscant before."

He glanced upwards. "It's because of the blackout."

"I know _that_." She said. "Why do you always have to be so...so...?" He stared up at her, and she trailed off. "Forget it. Never mind."

He stood up too, and leant on the balcony railing, next to her. "So what?"

"I said forget it."

"I know what you said."

"You're doing it again! You're always so... _rational_." She said, finally.

"Rational?"

"Yes!" She breathed, and turned to him. "Look, do you know why Dengar really left you here?"

"He didn't leave because Manaroo is pregnant?"

"No. He didn't." After a short moment, she spoke again. "Did you really believe that?"

"For a while, perhaps. Until Dengar said she knocked out that assassin with a shovel."

Fornia laughed, despite herself. Fett turned back to look out at the darkened buildings.

"Dengar told me he was leaving you here so I could... I don't know, _change_ you. So you wouldn't end up like him. When he was an unfeeling killing machine."

"Do you think that it's working?" He asked. His expression was completely unreadable.

"I don't know. Probably not. You're still too rational" She smiled pointedly at him, before looking out over Coruscant. "Anyway, I think you're more of a bad influence on _me_."

At this, he turned to face her again.

"I don't know. You make me... well, I keep remembering Corellia, all the stuff me and Dengar used to do. I used to try not to. There's no point, I can't go back. It doesn't even exist anymore. That life. Or it does, and I don't. You know."

He said nothing.

"I'm sorry." They looked out across the rooftops in silence. "We're kind of alike, aren't we?" She said, half-smiling. He turned his whole body suddenly to face her.

"Do you kill people for money?" He said, shortly.

"No." She said, resentfully. He started to turn away again. "I have _killed_ people, you know. I did fight in the Rebellion, or were you not listening?"

Anger, irresistibly, began to spread through him.

"It's not the same. That was just politics."

"Every Imperial I shot was for what _they_ did to Dengar. I couldn't have cared less about the Rebel Alliance." Fornia said, her voice shaking.

They stared furiously at each other. After a long moment, Fett, once more, began to turn his head away. Blood was beating in Fornia's ears. She wouldn't allow him to look away. She caught the side of his face with her hand, stopping him from turning his head. He tried to brush her hand away, and, instinctively, she kissed him, hard.

Fett knew it was a challenge. He knew she was daring him to back away, to stand down. He wouldn't. He didn't break the kiss, but returned it angrily. Coruscant remained in darkness around them.

At some point the kiss stopped being a fight and became a kiss. She was pressed against him. Her hands found his and she interlaced their fingers. She suddenly broke away, stepping backwards through the open balcony door, her hands pulling him after her. Fett, for once, shut the door on rational thought, and followed her back into the dark apartment.


	16. Dreams and Visions

"_Through the Force, things you will see, other places. The future, the past; old friends long gone..." _- Master Yoda

* * *

The planet slept, deeply and soundly. The planet slept, truly, for the first time in perhaps a thousand years.

Without power, without lights and elevators and holovision channels, with only stars to look up at, the citizens of Coruscant had little else to do, but sleep. And dream.

* * *

Fornia's Apartment

Beams of moonlight and starlight lay across the bed, shining in through the uncovered window. They fell across the sleeping couple like soft searchlights, illuminating and shading.

The woman's face lay in shadow, her forehead resting on the back of the man's neck. Her arm lay around his waist, her hand resting against his stomach. A scar trailed out from under her palm, running up his stomach for several inches. It shone white in the moonlight.

They dreamt.

* * *

_BOBA_

_Boba dislikes the club. It's hot and smoky and sweaty, the music far too loud. The bass vibrates in his chest, makes him feel slightly nauseous. It's not a place he would choose to come, especially without his armour. He feels anxious standing here, not wearing it. No-one is paying any attention to him, but he still feels exposed, vulnerable. A very real compulsion to get out of the place grips him but he stays where he is. He has a feeling he can't leave yet. And there is the girl, of course._

_The dance floor is crowded, yet he picked her out in a glance. She holds her arms above her head as she dances, swaying them to the music. The tight, glittering vest she wears rides up as she moves, exposing a firm, flat stomach. She tousles her hair, pushing it back out of her face, smiling as she does so. Boba knows he is not the only person in here looking at her; there are other men, other women, humans and aliens alike who want her. He senses the girl knows that too._

_She is desirable; Boba would call her beautiful if she were not wearing so much make-up, but there is a brashness about her, a cockiness to her smile that is slightly off-putting. Boba has a feeling she would laugh in the face of anyone who approached her. _

_He keeps his eyes on her as she leaves the dance floor, lighting a death-stick as she walks. He follows her, moving through the smoky crowd. The girl sits down amongst a group of people in a dark corner of the club. She calls them her friends but Boba doubts they are. They arrange coloured powders in lines and shapes on the low table they sit around, taking turns to lean forward and inhale them._

_A young man approaches the group as the girl is about to take her turn with the powder. He grabs her arm and pulls her away. The group of people sitting around the powder table ignore this, carrying on as if nothing has happened. Boba turns his back on them, and follows the girl._

_The young man leads her to the entrance of the club, where the music is not so skull-shakingly loud, and the air is fresher. Boba breathes deeply, before stepping closer to the pair in the doorway._

"_I thought you said you didn't do that stuff." The young man is saying, still holding the girl's arm._

"_Oh, that's rich." She replies, freeing her arm from his grip. "It was never a problem when _you_ were doing it."_

"_I don't do it anymore, though, Forn'. Racing's too important now."_

"_It's always one rule for you and another for your kid sister, isn't it?" She turns away from him, her hands on her hips. Suddenly she looks back to him. "Wait, what do you mean?" Her whole demeanour changes, from sullen to eager. "Have you got a race coming up?"_

"_Maybe." He replies, not meeting her eyes. "That's what I came to tell you. The new guy wants a race. Just me and him."_

"_What, Solo?"_

"_Yeah."_

"_Are you gonna do it?" She grasps both his hands in hers._

"_The prize in ten grand." He shrugs._

"_That's not an answer."_

"_No, I guess not." He looks into her eyes, finally. "What do you think?"_

"_You should do it." The girl says without hesitation. "Everyone thinks this new kid is the next big thing. This is your chance to prove he isn't, in a straight fight."_

"_Yeah, but what if _he_ wins?" _

"_Not an option, I'm afraid." She grins at him._

_Someone taps Boba on the shoulder. He turns and it's Fornia, dressed in her blue catsuit. She stands beside him, her long dark hair framing her face. She surveys the boy and girl in the doorway._

"Nothing else worth seeing here." _Fornia says bluntly. "_Can we gatecrash your party next?_"_

"Ok._" He replies._

_It starts to rain heavily inside the club. The smoke, the music and the dancers all begin to wash away, the colour running out of them, swirling away in the rainwater. Last to dissolve are the younger Fornia and Dengar. Boba watches them fade, until Fornia slips her hand inside his and pulls him gently away._

_

* * *

_

_FORNIA_

_Fornia steps out of the rain into an empty white corridor. It's clean and warm, and Fornia is certainly glad to be inside, out of the storm, but it is not a cosy place. The white panelled walls gleam, and Fornia is half afraid to touch them in case she leaves grubby fingerprints. It's sterile, not a place one would feel comfortable alone. Alone is how Fornia finds herself, though; Boba, whose hand had been holding onto hers only moments ago, is nowhere to be seen._

_Fornia glances up and down the corridor, feeling lost. She walks towards a door set into the shining surface of the wall, meaning to go through it and find Boba, but before she can, it opens._

_A very small boy with a mop of thick black curls stands in the open doorway, tentatively looking out. He can't be much older than four, or at least Fornia guesses so. She notices a small stool on the other side of the door, made of the same shiny white material as the walls, which the boy had clearly used to stand on and reach the door control panel. The boy looks along the corridor both ways again, glances over his shoulder, and seemingly makes up his mind. He steps out into the corridor, and immediately trots away, ignoring Fornia completely (she has half an idea he can't see her at all)._

_He has barely gone ten steps, though, before a slim, dark haired young woman strides out of the doorway after him._

"_Not so fast, kiddo." The woman catches up to the little boy and scoops him into her arms, tickling him. He squeals and laughs, delighted._

"_You always catch me too fast!" He says, still giggling._

"_I wouldn't be much good as a babysitter if I didn't, would I?"_

"_Or as a bounty hunter." The little boy says._

_The young woman (Fornia had thought she was the boy's mother, but after hearing her call herself a babysitter, she supposes not) seems surprised and slightly scared to hear the boy say this, but she doesn't let it show for too long._

"_Where d'you hear that, Bo'?"_

"_Daddy told me. He's a bounty hunter too."_

"_Aha."_

"_It's ok, Zam." The little boy smiles brightly at her. "When I grow up I'm going to be one just like him. And you."_

"_Are you really?" She says, arching an eyebrow. "Why's that?"_

_He pouts at her, as if to say 'why do you think, stupid?' and Fornia has to stifle a laugh._

"_So I can catch bad guys. Like you and my Daddy do."_

_Zam, the dark haired young woman, looks at the boy she holds in her arms for a long while. To Fornia, she looks like she is considering her words carefully. The boy's smile falters slightly under her gaze._

"_Don't grow up too fast, Boba." She says, and sets him down. He looks at her, sunny smile long gone. Fornia doesn't think she's ever seen a child with a more serious expression._

"_Come on, let's get you back inside." Zam says, after a moment. "Then you can spend all afternoon planning out how to escape again."_

"_Ok." He replies, and runs back inside. "Come on, Zam!" He calls over his shoulder. At least, the last word could have been 'Zam', but it sounded a lot like 'Mom'. Fornia isn't sure, and Zam doesn't look like she knows either. She lingers in the corridor and covers her eyes with her hands, dragging them down her face until they cover her nose and mouth like a mask._

"_I'm not that, kid. I'm not." She says, the words muffled slightly by her hands. She follows him inside, and Fornia is left alone in the corridor again._

_She is debating whether to follow them through the door when, without any warning, someone takes her hand. She turns, startled, and it is Boba. Her Boba, grown up and gaunt._

"Wondered where you'd got to._" She smiles, but it's half-hearted. She wants to embrace him. She doesn't, just holds onto his hand tightly._

"Let's go somewhere else_." Is all that he says._

_She nods. Leaves and ferns begin to grow out from between the shiny white panels on the walls, tree trunks and roots splitting the floor as they shoot up. The deep, acrid smell of smoke fills the corridor._

"Oh, no_," says Fornia, and squeezes Boba's hand tighter..._

_

* * *

_

BOBA

The Tipoca City corridor had become a dense, darkened forest. Fornia was still beside him, grasping his hand so tightly it almost hurt.

"Oh, no." She said again. "We can't stay here." She looked around with wide, wild eyes. Boba had seen that look before, in the eyes of cornered animals. And people. "Come on, we've got to get out of here."

She started to walk hurriedly through the undergrowth, pulling him along behind her.

"I don't think we can leave." He said, stumbling slightly after her. "Not until we... see what we're here to see."

"I can't!" She almost shouted, stopping and turning to face him. "Please. I can't watch it... I can't see it. Not again. Please, Boba."

"Ok." He said. "We'll try to get out."

She carried on through the trees, stumbling and occasionally catching herself on twigs and thorns. The smell of smoke only got stronger as they walked. Fornia noticed this, and stropped. She turned around completely and began to walk in the opposite direction.

They kept going but the smoke only became thicker and thicker, until it became quite difficult to see anything but the trees nearest to them.

Fornia came to a dead halt, and turned around to face Boba. Her eyes, still slightly wild looking, were red-rimmed. Boba couldn't tell if it was from the smoke or not. She shrugged and tried to smile, tears beginning to streak down her face.

"I get it. There's no way out of here. I have to see it again. You were right." She wiped her eyes with the back of her free hand. "Just... please don't leave. Don't leave me alone."

"I won't." He said, and put his arms around her. She buried her face into the side of his neck. Dark grey smoke billowed around them. Boba strained his eyes to see through it, keeping a tight hold of Fornia.

The smoke cleared, briefly, and not far away through the trees he finally saw its source; a crashed ship.

Boba recognised as a Y-Wing, the type used by the Rebellion during the war. Although it was obviously in no state to fly again, it had avoided major damage by going to ground in a small clearing, missing the dense trees. As he watched, a pilot dressed in the standard Rebel orange flightsuit and white helmet squeezed out of the cockpit and tumbled to the forest floor, coughing.

At the noise, Boba felt Fornia sigh against his neck, and she raised her head to look at the pilot.

"Don't remember getting out." She said softly. "The first thing I remember doing –"

"Tam?" The pilot called out through another cough, looking up into the ship's cockpit. Despite the coughing, Boba recognised it as Fornia's voice. "Tam, can you hear me? Are you ok?"

"Is that." Fornia finished, gazing at the stranded ship, and her younger self.

"Alorida, girl, is that you?" Came a man's voice from within the cockpit.

"Who else is it gonna be?" She said, her shoulders sagging slightly with relief. "Can you get out of there, Commander?"

"Doesn't look like it. My belt's jammed tight." Replied the Rebel commander. "I'm not injured. Nothing serious, anyway" He added.

"Copy that." Fornia the Rebel pilot said. "I'm climbing up to you."

"Any hostiles out there, Alorida? More importantly, are we in any condition to fly?"

"Negative to both." She replied, as she pulled herself up on the wing. Boba noted that she hadn't bothered to check for hostiles at all. "We need picking up. See if you can get anyone on the comlink, Tam."

"This is Gold Twelve, repeat, this is Gold Twelve. We've been shot down by an unknown enemy, ship unable to fly, repeat, unable to fly. Is anyone out there?"

There was no reply, only the static hiss coming out of the open radio channel.

"Keep trying, Tam-" Fornia started to say, when a high pitched whistle filled the clearing. She stopped trying to climb into the cockpit and looked around at the trees. "Do you hear – what is that?"

Boba, who heard it and knew exactly what it was, instinctively flung himself to the forest floor, pulling Fornia down beside him.

He looked up in time to see the missile hit the stricken Y-Wing, and watched as it exploded in a massive orange fireball. The other, younger Fornia was flung backwards off the ship by the force of the explosion, and landed with a thud amongst the trees, avoiding breaking her neck by pure luck alone. Shrapnel and pieces of the ship crashed down all around the clearing.

"Short range missile, probably from a hand launcher." Boba heard himself saying. Fornia, the one on the ground beside him, said nothing. There was nothing left of the Y-Wing but a mangled, blackened wreck. They watched the Rebel Fornia stagger to her feet on the other side of the clearing.

"TAM!" She screamed. Boba noticed with a pang that she hadn't even thought to get her blaster out. As she stepped towards the wrecked ship, a blaster bolt hit the tree behind her, leaving a smoking crater in the bark. Thick red sap oozed down the trunk.

She rolled out of the way with surprising agility, landing in a crouched position. She fumbled her blaster out of the holster on her thigh, and pressed the emergency comlink button on the side of her helmet.

"This is Gold Twelve, I'm under attack! My commander is dead, immediate assistance required! Somebody, help me!" She yelled into the radio, her voice hoarse. "Repeat, this is Gold Twelve –" She stopped mid-sentence. A huge figure had stepped from under the shadow of the trees to her left. She seemed unable to do anything but gape at him.

"Hello, little sister."

They stared at each other for a long moment. Then Dengar opened fire. Fornia avoided each shot, managing to roll behind a fallen tree trunk. She disappeared into the trees.

Boba, from his position on the ground, couldn't help but stare at Dengar. Although the other bounty hunter looked as Boba had always known him to, it was a terrifying contrast to when Boba had seen him last, in the club with Fornia. Gone was the handsome young man who had pulled Fornia into a doorway and scolded her for her exploits. In his place was a huge armoured horror-show, a pale bandaged face wrapped in black metal plates, wielding a missile launcher as tall as himself. Dengar's eyes, so blue and serious in the nightclub, were dead and flat and glassy. One had been replaced by machinery. There was no vengeance or malice in them, just a calm determination. He looked like a droid.

Boba watched him as he scanned the trees for Fornia. Dengar clearly knew she wouldn't go far, lost on an alien planet without transport, so placed the missile launcher carefully on the floor. He held a blaster rifle upright, leaning it against his shoulder.

"Sister, come out. We are not children, do not play games." He said, in a flat, dead voice that matched his eyes.

"You're not my brother!" Fornia screamed from somewhere outside the clearing. Dengar's head snapped around, following the sound.

"Of course I am. Remember Corellia? We grew up there, played there. You watched my races." Dengar said emotionlessly, still looking all around. He was trying to upset Fornia, and goad her into giving herself away.

"Don't answer, don't say anything." Boba breathed to himself. His heart pounded in his chest, even though he knew neither he nor Fornia (_real Fornia_) could be hurt in this place. She still lay next to him, her eyes now tight shut.

"Shut up!" Yelled Rebel Fornia, and Boba exhaled. He could hear tears in her voice. "Why are you doing this to me?"

"I have instruction." Dengar said, moving stealthily towards the source of her voice.

"From who? The Empire?"

"They saved my life. It is my duty to obey." Dengar stopped moving. He seemed quite sincere.

"They didn't save your life! They _bastardized_ your death. You... you _should_ be dead!"

"Shut up, shut up!" Boba murmured. Fornia was allowing herself to be manipulated, and once more Dengar was closing in on her.

"Maybe they will decide to do the same for you, sister." Dengar readied the rifle against himself, and aimed it at a vast, ancient tree. "If you beg me, I can recommend the surgeons oper-"

Fornia leapt nimbly from behind the tree and shot a stunning bolt from her blaster. Dengar's knees buckled, but he was too strong to be completely overwhelmed by it.

"Now!" Fornia yelled, pressing her comlink button. There was the sound of an engine from above, and the trees around the clearing began to shake. Dust and dirt was swept up from the ground, and another Y-Wing swooped down. It had a ladder lowered for Fornia. Boba understood then that she had been using the comlink during her whole conversation with Dengar, allowing another Rebel ship to locate her.

Impressive.

But Dengar wasn't finished. Fornia was about halfway up the ladder when Dengar leapt mightily to grab the bottom rung. Under his massive armoured form the ladder began to buckle. Fornia screamed and brandished her blaster, firing without looking.

A bolt hit Dengar and he crashed back to the forest floor. The Y-Wing lurched upwards. Boba scrambled up onto his knees to see the ship disappearing into the heavens, with the Rebel Fornia still clinging to the ladder. Boba could still clearly see her pale, shocked face, looking down at her brother's crumpled form.

The Fornia on the ground beside him was sobbing. Boba pulled her up, not gently, and held her against himself. The dust thrown up from the Y-Wing swirled around them, growing thicker and thicker. It had taken on a familiar reddish-brown hue. Boba's stomach lurched, and he understood what was coming next.

* * *

FORNIA

The thick red dust began to dissipate, and Fornia looked up from Boba's shoulder to see the scene had changed again. They stood at the back of a narrow cave, its walls the same rusty colour as the dust.

Fornia breathed shakily, her face still damp with tears. She did not pull away from Boba's hold. She noticed vaguely that the cave was shaking slightly, dust showering down intermittently from above them. There were screams coming from outside, Fornia realised, and the sound of blaster bolts. It sounded like a battle. She turned her head towards the entrance of the cave, and noticed for the first time they were not alone.

A boy crouched at the entrance. She could only see the back of his head, but Fornia recognised the mop of thick black curls. He was older than when she'd last seen him, by a good few years. She pulled away from Boba and stepped towards the entrance. Boba followed her. He avoided looking at the black-haired boy.

Fornia surveyed the scene outside the cave. The horror she felt from reliving her rebellion encounter with Dengar became diminished slightly by what lay before her.

The cave was high above a huge arena, an amphitheatre with massive crumbling red rock walls. A battle raged below on the sand of the arena floor, thousands of battle droids against a scattered number of Jedi, their lightsabers flashing blue and green through the swirling dust. It was chaos. There were even animals, _creatures_, amongst the fighting; it seemed the battle had interrupted an arena match.

Fornia tried to make sense of it. The battle droids were an old model, not used in combat since before the Empire came. This battle, then, must have been part of the Clone Wars, but no clone troopers were in sight.

Then there was a flash of silver through the dust, and Fornia was distracted by a man who had flown down to the arena floor. A man who looked like he was wearing Boba's armour, although silver and more pristine looking.

"No."

Fornia turned around, and realised with a jolt of surprise that it had been Boba who had spoken. She had never heard his voice like that before; terrified, almost unhinged.

He bounded out of the cave, past the crouching black haired boy, and looked out over the arena. Without warning he jumped, landing on the theatre steps below, and began to run down. Fornia looked back at the battle. The silver suited man had encountered one of the arena creatures, and was being trampled beneath its hooves. She tore her eyes away, and leapt after Boba.

"Wait! Boba, stop!" She called after him. He stumbled slightly on the rocky steps and she managed to catch up to him, lunging for his hand.

"You can't change whatever's going to happen."

He tried to pull his hand free. "Why? Why not? Maybe that's why we're here." He looked back at her, desperation in his eyes.

"You know it's not."

"I can't just watch! I can't-"

Fornia looked back at the arena. The armoured man had survived the beast's hooves, and shot a precise blaster bolt at it, leaping out of the way as it fell dead.

"What is this? Why are we seeing this?" Boba looked back, compulsively, at the arena. The man in the silver armour had not trained his blaster pistol on a Jedi, a tall black Knight with a purple lightsaber.

"I don't know. I'm sorry." She replied. Dengar's broken form lying on the forest floor flashed in her mind, unbidden, and Boba sank to his knees before her.

"Don't... let me-"

She didn't make him say it. She put her hands in his hair, gently, and he wrapped his arms around her, resting his forehead against her stomach.

Fornia watched the moment for him. The Jedi deflected each blaster bolt, effortlessly, approaching the man in the silver armour at a run. The Jedi swung the purple lightsaber in a slow arc, and beheaded him.

Fornia sank down to her knees too. Boba was shaking before her. She embraced him, and he held onto her tightly. The pitch dark of the black-out engulfed them once more.


End file.
